Air Quality Consultants provided air quality design advice; completed an air quality assessment; and undertook a greenhouse gas assessment for a mixed-use, residential led development in the London Borough of Newham.
The site posed several air quality challenges which needed to be considered in the masterplanning stage of the development. This included existing emissions and future emissions (based on growth aspirations) from an adjacent sugar refining factory; emissions from vessels on the Thames; localised odours from operations at the sugar factory and from light industrial activities in the vicinity of the site; emissions from operations at the nearby London City Airport. Lastly fugitive dust was also considered, as well as road traffic pollutants from vehicles utilising the local road network.
The proposals included a redevelopment of a 6.1 hectare brownfield site to include the demolition of all existing buildings and the subsequent construction of numerous buildings to contain 1,610 residential units; light industrial and storage uses; commercial and business uses; office, business and retail space; a nursery; and community space including a new public park and square.
Air Quality Consultants engaged with the design team in the early conception stages of the project, to ensure that air quality was considered within the scheme design and mitigation measures were included as appropriate. This included the completion of odour field surveys and preliminary air quality dispersion modelling. The results were presented to the design team in non-technical language.
Some of the main air quality design features included the use of the building massing to act as ‘buffers’ from the adjacent activities at the sugar factory to ensure future users and residents experienced acceptable air quality conditions. The community space and nursery were located in the middle of the development, away from local sources of air pollution
As part of the detailed design work, air quality consultants completed dispersion modelling of the roof-level energy plant flues to ensure a running track and mediation space was in the appropriate location and future users will not be exposed to poor air quality.
In addition to the design advice, Air Quality Consultants provided an air quality assessment and ES Chapter, and a Greenhouse Gas Standalone report as part of the planning application.
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