External websites we've worked on:
24 Hour cities and sustainability
This EPSRC SUE project concerns the environmental impact of 24 hour cities and city centre living. The 2.75M consortium project includes work with UCL, Sheffield University, London Metropolitan University and a large number of stakeholders/users. The Vivacity project includes a workpackage on environmental factors such as acoustics.
City centre living and the 24 hour city are relevant to living, studying and working is Manchester (Salford University is only 2km from the city centre). Manchester has seen a great increase in the number of people living in the city and there is an ever increasing number of bars and clubs opening into the early hours of the morning. This causes acoustic and other environmental problems. While it is assumed that it is more sustainable to live close to where you work, because it reduces reliance on transportation, the city centre residents are probably subjected to a much worse environment to live in - for example a noisier and more polluted environment.
The project has found that outdoor and indoor environmental conditions in the city centre are reasonable when compared to normal guidelines. However, the guidelines are a rather blunt tool. Residents opinions show that people are trading off problems such noise against the convenience of being located close to work and leisure facilities.
Visit Ben Croxford's (UCL) page on this workpackage
Some publications:
- Mags Adams, Trevor Cox, Gemma Moore, Ben Croxford B, Mohamed Refaee, Steve Sharples S, 'Sustainable soundscapes: noise policy and the urban experience,' Urban Studies, (13): 2385-2398, (dec 2006).
- Adams, M., Moore, G., Cox, T., Croxford, B., Refaee, M. & Sharples, S. (submitted 2005). Sounds sustainable: acoustic quality in the urban environment, Engineering Sustainability
- Adams, M., Moore, G., Cox, T., Croxford, B., Refaee, M. & Sharples, S. 'The 24 hour City: Residents' sensorial experiences,' The Senses and Society. 2(2), 201-215, (July 2007).
- Mags Adams and Simon Guy (Eds), The Senses and Society: Special Issue The Senses and the City, 2(2) (July 2007).