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Summary
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| case studies |
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- Background
- Case 1
- Case 2
- Case 3
Adaptation is a critical component in making the North East region more resilient against the climate changes that are projected to occur by the 2050s and their associated impacts on the region’s society, buildings, infrastructure and key economic assets.
Having identified a range of adaptation approaches that are suitable for implementation in the region, it is useful to demonstrate the fact that much innovative work is already being undertaken in respect of certain adaptation approaches.
In this section, you can learn about the following four different adaptation case studies from within the North East region.
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Land Use Management |
Environment Agency |
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Buildings |
Gentoo Homes |
3 |
Integrated Urban Drainage |
Environment Agency |
Through use of these case studies it is anticipated that elements of good practice can be transferred more widely across the region and innovative ideas can be sparked in other sectors that need to start adapting to our changing climate.
Challenges faced
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The Cheviots in Northumberland are characterised by land uses that include livestock and arable agriculture, nature conservation, forestry and woodland, military uses, tourism and recreation, and water resources.
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Under a changing climate there will be impacts on all of these land uses, particularly relating to increased winter rainfall, reduced summer and annual rainfall and increased temperatures.
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These projected changes could lead, at different times of the year, to water-logged soils, drought, changes in crop yield, and changes in habitats.
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The main challenge faces by farmers and land managers is how to adapt in advance of the impacts becoming manifest in order to make their activities and assets more climate-proofed.
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Findings
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- The projected climate changes will have particular impacts in respect of flooding, water resources and wild fires, as well as increased spread of disease amongst livestock and crops.
- Invasive species will become more prevalent; indeed the spread of bracken is already a concern and will become more so under a warmer climate.
- Remote wild fires are more likely due to surrounding vegetation being tinder dry. Specialist equipment and training of key personnel are required to enable these events to be effectively tackled.
- Adaptation approaches considered have included tree-planting for shading effects and river-bank stabilisation, planting of different crop types that are more conducive to warmer climes, and improved awareness of changing climate-related risks through training and public information.
- When assessing impacts and appropriate adaptation approaches, there is a need to consider interconnectivity between different geographical areas (e.g. uplands to lowlands) and between different sectors (e.g. flood risk management, water resources, agriculture).
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Key issues
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- Climate change brings impacts to many existing land uses, but it also brings opportunities which can be exploited, such as increased potential for outdoor recreation and tourism.
- Cross-sectoral responses can deliver win-win situations. For example, storage of winter rainfall (which is projected to increase) can relieve winter flood risk, but can also assist in the drier summer months by providing a source of water to enable crop irrigation, livestock watering, or fighting of wild fires.
- Following completion of a Scoping Study, a number of demonstration projects are being planned for 2008 to deliver practical adaptation approaches.
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Challenges faced
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- The existing Hahnemann Court in Sunderland is a 1960s built pre-fabricated apartment complex in need of a major update. A decision was made to demolish the existing building and create a new development that would be wholly sustainable into the future, for the people who live there.
- To achieve this 4 key issues were considered: (1) climate change; (2) energy security; (3) changing demographics; and (4) lifestyle requirements.
- It was decided that the ‘retirement village’ would be constructed to the highest rated ‘excellent’ Ecohomes specification for new build developments. It was quickly established that various Low Carbon Technologies would be installed to mitigate future climate change, including bio mass heating, solar thermal hot water generation, rain water harvesting and heat recovery ventilation systems.
- However due to the development being for the elderly and the fact that the construction would be in place for the foreseeable future, it was important to also consider how the design could be adapted to cope with any potential weather changes.
- Examining the findings of the ‘Climate Change Adaptation on the Wear’ study report it was found that the predicted future extreme weather patterns, and particularly the expected rise in average temperatures, on Wearside could cause problems for more elderly customers (e.g. greater discomfort due to uncomfortable internal temperatures, leading to adverse health effects).
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Findings
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- Planning and design should be thorough as sustainable design is ‘front loaded’ compared with traditional design. Early decisions have the greatest impact on maximising daylight and natural cooling.
- Promoting human health should be one of the principal organising principles of sustainable design.
- The other elements of design can be organised as: energy-saving architectural features; energy-conserving building envelope; health-promoting mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems; and understanding the environmental impact of the design by evaluating the embodied energy. Finally understanding people, for example, retired people will tend to be at home more during the day so will need more constant heating/cooling etc.
- The thermal performance of the building envelope contributes to comfort and energy usage within a building. A heavyweight building’s design has been utilised as they are frequently associated with spaces that are occupied over a longer period of the 24 hour day. Buildings that have a heavyweight structure are better at ‘riding’ extremes of high and low temperature. Utilising the thermal mass of a building is a very effective and efficient way of maintaining comfortable and stable temperatures.
- Underfloor heating has been used to optimise the effect of the building’s mass and the flats will have kitchen and bathroom extract ventilation systems, which will modulate as necessary, using heat recovery on the extract air to preheat the replacement fresh air. The systems will operate at low volume under normal use, with the option to switch to high volume when needed. Windows will be openable to allow natural ventilation to be utilised to aid cooling during high temperatures and heatwaves.
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Key Issues
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- It is important to understand the habits of the people who are going to be using and inhabiting the built development.
- Adaptation techniques are much easier to implement and cheaper if considered at the front end of the design process.
- An adaptive design approach does not have to be expensive. It is important to consider siting, shading etc. of any construction.
- Combining an adaptation and mitigation approach was found to be the most sustainable solution.
- Good adaptation can be about measures you purposely omit from your design just as much as about the features you incorporate.
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Challenges faced
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- The study area focused on a small area of North Gosforth within the Ouseburn catchment. Existing established development had over the years suffered from urban flooding and to a limited extent fluvial flooding.
- In the late 1990s outline permission for a large green field development, now known as Newcastle Great Park, was granted. This development was designed with Sustainable Drainage Systems (SUDS) from the outset.
- Flooding in 2005 raised public concerns regarding the future flood risk in the catchment. The primary concerns were related to the new development and the A1 trunk road drainage.
- In order to address residents’ concerns a full study into the problems commenced in 2007, supported by the Defra Making Space for Water Integrated Urban Drainage programme.
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Findings
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- The major flooding mechanism in the area was from the sewered catchment. Northumbrian Water invested over £3 million upgrading the sewer system to reduce the flood risk.
- Due to large areas of impermeable existing development, the Ouseburn reacts very quickly to summer storms and can interact with the sewer system reducing sewer performance.
- Climate change is predicted to increase storminess and therefore increase the number of times during summer events that the Ouseburn and sewer system may interact.
- The Newcastle Great Park Development does have the potential to assist in reducing the existing flood risk. Areas adjacent to the Ouseburn have been excavated and may be utilised as off-line storage.
The study to date has highlighted several key ongoing questions:
- Are SUDS ponds best utilised purely as rainwater control features? Can they serve a dual purpose?
- Should more effort be made into designing the outlets to allow varied flows so that stored water may be released more quickly when the river has returned to lower flows?
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Key issues
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- New development often highlights existing problems which may not previously have been fully understood.
- In order to fully understand the problems we need good data to allow full investigations to proceed.
- Before designing SUDS we need to understand how the receiving watercourse reacts to catchment flows.
- Solving urban drainage issues requires cooperation from many organisations and groups which can make the funding and responsibility difficult to allocate.
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