Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference:	EP/C513177/1
Title:	An Integrated Approach to Sustainable Urban Redevelopment: Birmingham Eastside as a National Demonstrator
Principal Investigator:	Rogers, Professor CDF
Other Investigators:	Sadler, Professor J Barber, Dr A Jankovic, Professor L Coles, Professor R Bryson, Professor J Jefferson, Professor I
Researcher Co-Investigators:	Dr RG Donovan Dr L Porter Dr SB Taylor
Project Partners:	Birmingham City Council Environment Agency (Grouped) Groundwork
Department:	Civil Engineering
Organisation:	University of Birmingham
Scheme:	Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts:	01 November 2004	Ends:	31 December 2006	Value (£):	412,332
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:	Assess/Remediate Contamination Building Ops & Management Construction Ops & Management Energy Efficiency Urban & Land Management Water Engineering
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:	Construction Environment Energy Transport Systems and Vehicles Water
Related Grants:
Panel History:
Summary on Grant Application Form
This research proposal is for an extension to a Sustainable Urban Environment Scoping Study that is exploring the feasibility of adopting Birmingham Eastside as a 'Demonstrator of Sustainable Urban Redevelopment' (GR/S20482, which employs four Research Fellows, started in May 2003 and will finish in October 2004). The current project is being carried out by researchers from a wide range of academic disciplines (ranging from engineers to environmental geographers to social economists) and has its primary focus on the barriers to and enablers of sustainable urban redevelopment. The current study is limited to two contrasting parts of the large Eastside area that is undergoing redevelopment (the Masshouse Area and City Park), but went through the planning stages well before the research project started. There are already many interesting findings, which have firmly established the feasibility of the site as an excellent national, and indeed international, demonstrator. Much information has been collected on the Eastside development (www.esr.bham.ac.uk) and a library has been established in the base room at the University of Birmingham, where there is office space and meeting facilities for housing permanent and visiting researchers.This extension will utilise the strong multi-disciplinary research partnership established between the Universities of Birmingham (UoB) and Central England (UCE) and build upon its extensive network of contacts, including key stakeholders, policy-makers, private developers, and community-based and non-governmental organisations. By focusing upon two current developments, the existing study has both identified a hierarchy of specific and generic barriers to achieving sustainable urban redevelopment, and highlighted possible ways of overcoming them (i.e. enablers). The most important barrier to achieving sustainability (which is being considered in its broadest sense based around the three social, environmental and economic 'pillars') was identified as the decision-making process, where sustainability either becomes central (or not) to the future of the city. The proposed research will therefore explore the complex issues surrounding the barriers and enablers at the time of decision-making and develop datasets that span across the disciplines and show trends of development with time. These datasets will facilitate decision-making in Eastside which will be made available to stakeholders and decision-makers at the earliest stages, which will further help to promote sustainable thinking within Eastside. It will also provide the basis of an extensive set of information for researchers working on other sustainability projects to use to test their theories and provide valuable indicators for future research work. Perhaps of most importance is the fact that the focus of this new project is on three developments in the planning stage where an impact can be made and where the dynamics of barrier formation during decision-making can be explored in real time, rather than in hindsight.
Key Findings
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Potential use in non-academic contexts
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Impacts
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Further Information:
Organisation Website:	http://www.bham.ac.uk