River Trust

Rivers in Sheffield were once freshwater, you could drink from them. For hundreds of years Provided a natural energy source for mills, and experimentation ground for steel. Invented in Sheffield steel lead to Industrial Revolution, you could make train tracks and hubs. Where Sheffield became the cradle of innovation with the creation of the crucible furnace knifemaking, steelmaking. So Sheffield is the birthplace of the globes advancement in these areas. 

With theses changes another thing happened, the pollution of the rivers they begin to become a sign of pollution and disease. The pollution of the planet was  early reflected in the rivers in Sheffield and Manchester. Rather than balancing the ecosystem they culverted, and the dirty rivers begin to flow underground. No longer safe to drink from they were hidden rather than healed. There are now efforts to purify the rivers and to deculvert them as a key planning priority. What this represents is the move from an understanding of only industrial production to an understanding of the ecosystem effect. The post-industrial effort to create eco cities as a means healing the urban environment as a sign of the wider transition towards renewables. They are a sign of industrial change.