Staying Afloat? Making Home and Creating Place on London's Canals and Rivers

在过去的30年里，随着经济结构调整、重建计划和士绅化进程将城市曾经破败的部分变成了充满活力的宜居之地，伦敦的居住景观和社区发生了戏剧性的变化(例如，参见Hamnett 2003，Butler and Robson 2003，Camplin 2013)。然而，随着这个全球化大都市的人口增长，家庭结构发生了变化，其住房存量越来越成为投资和投机的焦点。大量移民到伦敦增加了城市的社会复杂性，增加了住房压力，导致家庭生活的流动性和不稳定体验日益增加，特别是对低收入群体(Vertovec 2007，Jordan等人2017，DeVerteuil 2017)。这导致了人们对伦敦的可持续性以及在社会和空间不平等日益加剧的情况下促进社会公正生活方式的能力的质疑(Imrie和Lees，2013)。这与过去十年伦敦水道的显著变化不谋而合，最明显的表现是停泊在城市运河和通航河流上的船只数量的增加。据负责可持续管理100英里伦敦水道的运河和河流信托基金(CRT)表示，自2010年以来，停泊船只的数量翻了一番，达到4000多艘。在最近的一项调查中，58%的受访者将他们的船只作为主要住所(CRT 2016；2017)。据估计，多达10,000人生活在伦敦的水道上(伦敦议会，2013年)。除了成为伦敦人的重要居住地外，大都市运河和河流也是新经济活动和新兴休闲娱乐场所的焦点，蓝色空间及其毗邻的绿地被高度重视，因为它们有助于城市居民的福祉。伦敦人正在努力支付陆上住宿或选择另一种生活方式和住所的高昂费用。牵引路对城市的连通性很重要，并已成为战略的关键，通过将其推广为自行车和步行路线，以及作为服务和公用事业(天然气/电力/光纤)的战略路线，实现可持续交通。这些线性的、相连的蓝色空间也为野生动物提供了重要的迁徙路线，并成为城市中心生物群的重要避难所。然而，城市水道使用方式的快速变化也导致了不同用户之间的冲突，比如船民和他们的陆地邻居。2013年，伦敦议会委托编写了一份关于伦敦水道系泊问题的报告，提出了几项关键建议，包括增加系泊能力、改善通道和设施(伦敦议会，2013)。这项研究将帮助CRT更好地了解那些在伦敦运河和河流上安家的人的需求，并为CRT与所有用户共同努力，将水道环境发展为可持续和高质量的生活、工作和享受一系列休闲活动的场所。这一及时研究的结果将支持CRT伦敦航道伙伴关系十年战略计划(2014)及其最近发布的伦敦系泊战略草案(2017)的实现。该项目将开发智力和理论框架，以了解伦敦水道沿线的当代住宅和场所建造策略。它将产生新的证据，为信托基金的工作提供信息，并评估衡量其影响的方法。

The past 30 years have seen dramatic changes to London's residential landscapes and neighbourhoods as economic restructuring, programmes of regeneration, and processes of gentrification have transformed once run-down parts of the city into vibrant and desirable places to live in (see, for example, Hamnett 2003, Butler and Robson 2003, Camplin 2013). Yet as the population of the globalising metropolis has grown, household structures have changed, and its housing stock has increasingly become the focus of investment and speculation. High levels of migration to London have added to the city's social complexity and have increased pressures on housing leading to increasingly mobile and precarious experiences of domestic life, especially for lower income groups (Vertovec 2007, Jordan et al 2017, DeVerteuil 2017). This has led to a questioning of the sustainability of London and its ability to promote socially just ways of living amidst growing social and spatial inequality (Imrie and Lees 2013). This coincides with a remarkable transformation of London's waterways in the last decade, the most visible manifestation of which has been the growth in the number of boats moored along the city's canals and navigable rivers. According to the Canal & River Trust (CRT) - the main partner in this research project - who are responsible for sustainably managing 100 miles of London's waterways, the number of moored boats has doubled since 2010 to over 4,000 vessels and in a recent survey 58% of respondents were using their boats as their primary home (CRT 2016; 2017). It is estimated that as many as 10,000 people live on London's waterways (London Assembly 2013). But as well as becoming an important place to live for Londoners struggling to pay the high costs of 'on land' accommodation or choosing an alternative lifestyle and home, metropolitan canals and rivers are also the focus of new economic activity and emerging sites of leisure and recreation, with 'blue space' and their adjoining green spaces being highly valued as contributing to the well-being of the city's inhabitants. Towpaths are important to the city's connectivity and have become key to strategies for enabling sustainable transport through their promotion as cycling and walking routes and as strategic routes for services and utilities (gas/electricity/fibre). These linear, connected blue spaces also provide vital migratory routes for wildlife and act as important refugia for biota in urban centres. However, the rapid change in the use of the city's waterways has also led to conflicts between different users, such as boaters and their on-land neighbours. In 2013 the London Assembly commissioned a report into mooring on London's waterways making several key recommendations including increasing capacity for mooring, and improving access and facilities (London Assembly 2013). This research will assist the CRT in better understanding the needs of those who make their homes on London's canals and rivers and inform CRT's work with all users to develop waterway environments as sustainable and high-quality places for living, working and enjoying a range of leisure activities. The findings of this timely study will support realisation of the CRT's London Waterways Partnership Ten Year Strategic Plan (2014) and its recently launched Draft London Mooring Strategy (2017). The project will develop intellectual and theoretical frameworks for understanding contemporary home and place-making strategies along London's waterways. It will generate new evidence to inform the Trust's work and assess ways of measuring its impact.