Bristol: Polluters or Renewable Energy resources.

[dpvitt]

Hi,

I'm doing some research into the environment of the UK...

Does anyone know of any polluters, factories, waste deposits in Bristol?

I'm also looking for renewable energy sources like wind farms etc.?

Your help would be much appreciated!!!!

Thanks a lot!

Dan.

[wanlock dod]

Dan,

The former Britania Zinc smelter at Avonmouth (now closed for several years) was a significant source of pollution when it was running. I am sure that you woudl be able to find info on it in the literature (the EA had several studies into it), the plume of metals is distinguishable in the landscape, and the near by land was pretty much devoid of life. The contamination will no doubt remain for a goodly while even though the source has stopped. I think that there was even an analysis about whether it could have affected human health (the conclusion of that study was that fags and booze were actually rather more important in the general populus).

Dod

[Cotham Marble]

Originally Posted by dpvitt

Does anyone know of any polluters, factories, waste deposits in Bristol?

The massive 'overground' tip at Yanley off the A38, on the south west edge of Bristol, effectivly broke wildlife corridors which ran previously ran along the Green Belt within the urban limits (first urban Green Belt desigantion in the UK !)

The creation of this tip (400,000 Cubic meters ? 100 tonnes of asbestos) on top of open pasture, re-opened the argument for the building of a south west extension to the 'outer Bristol circular' route on the basis that despoilation of the landscape by tipping no longer inhibited the cutting through of the A38 to A370 spur.

Interestingly the Avon Wildlife Trust supported this tip on the basis that restoration would eventually take place -but inspite the fact that for two decades a good quality habitat would be lost to Brown Hare, Perigrines, Green Woodpecker etc. and an important water course - Colliters Brook, would be wrecked by track run off, and on at least one occaision direct pollution from uncontained tip effluent. Obviously the Trust's position was not in any way influenced by its receiving grants from the tip operator.

If you search for 'Bedminster Down' on Google Earth, the Yanley tip is the large ovoid scar to the north west of Bedminster Down, mid way between the A38 and A370.

CM

[nightshade]

The whole area has some nasty scars in it,none of them labelled, too bashful?
They all seem to be in good wildlife areas as well, including all those parked cars in a field Bristol Airport parking?

[dpvitt]

Hi guys hope you are all well!

I have now produced my application for the web, and got a few great points from Bristol. The Avonmouth dock area has some particularly interesting plots.

Just to run you through the idea:
The idea is that users can plot environmental contributors they see. E.g. If a user passes a wind turbine or a nuclear factory, they will take a photo of the energy resource and then plot it's location to the interactive map.

By doing this, the application seeks to provide a UK wide picture of contributors to our environment (Biomass Plants, Nuclear Power, Wind Farms, Solar Energy etc. etc. etc.)

The site is live here: EnviroJotter | An original analysis into the UK's environment

I'm really hoping to get a large following of users who will look at and discuss the environmental contributors. I am attempting to extract an emotional response from the environment, rather than data based on facts and figures - we are not numbers but human beings after all.

We are also on Twitter: EnviroJotter (EnviroJotter) on Twitter

Thanks for your suggestion on research, unfortunately I don't have much time at the moment due to the supervision of this project.

Perhaps when you're next passing the site you suggested you can take a photo of the site and have a go with the online application!

Your help and advice has been much appreciated.
Cheers,
Dan.

[tom00_uk]

its all well and good voting up a site, but you should also be able to do the reverse,

I can see the Dockside wind turbines from the hill i am currently on and they add to the view rather than blight it.

At my other address in Yorkshire in each direction you can see the steam plumes of the various power stations, which is more of a distraction (never get a "cloud" free day with these guys in operation) than the farm wind turbine that also in view.

[dpvitt]

Tom,

The idea of vote up is to 'vote up' the plot in reputation. It is no way associated with a negative or positive line of thought! Originally Vote Up was Shame, but I changed it because i wanted votes to be voted based on their value of discussion rather than them being good or bad... On second thoughts perhaps I should've made like or dislike buttons.

I am trying to get a discussion going from different opinions if the environment, it would be great if you could take some photos of what you can see and give the application a go!

All the best and thanks for your feedback,
Dan

[tom00_uk]

the comment and report as spam box's are miss aligned on chrome, spam looks like span,

maybe a ? next to vote up this plot to explain this feature

not sure on the waste, conservation, pollution headings,
in Conservation only nature reserves seems to fit the heading

the statistics page is meaningless, there are no figures there referenced against,
the most polluted is also the most green, with out showing how this can be it makes no sense. Is this because the most "pollution" or "conservation" sites have been highlighted by users in these areas?

Major Project for BU? I assume that's Bournemouth university, Major project as in final year project? then say so, some one might think this was commissioned by the University if they understand the abbreviation

sorry to sound down, but after years being trained to look analyticaly at things when studying to be a scientist these things stand out

[dpvitt]

The question mark may be good to explain this feature. Will take this into account.

The name Conservation was a tricky one, as I needed to include renewables and protected areas together. I believe the term does take into account the renewables as it describes an ethic of resource use, renewable energy as conserving energy resources.

The statistics page can only contain data that has been plotted. Therefore, where most plots are in the South West, both the SW Green and SW Polluted bars are the biggest.

Thanks,
Dan.

[dpvitt]

Although yes, I need to change the terminology on the graph of Most Polluted - Draxx is in the North East but probably pollutes more than SW put together!