Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
• Developments such as parks, landfills, or other landscaped areas may cover,
destroy, or remove original deposition features.
• Fieldwork—such as excavating test pits in a historic park—may significantly dis-
turb an area and create the need for expensive measures to restore the land to an
acceptable standard.
• Influencing and altering the natural environmental balance through large con-
struction projects affect the subsurface environment. For example, the construc-
tion of a dam may raise the regional groundwater levels or flood areas with water
before a sufficiently detailed geologic study can be conducted.
• Vegetative cover in urban areas occupies large amounts of surface area, especially
in regions with humid climates. This extensive vegetative cover contributes to the
difficulty in observing natural deposits and also increases the potential for dis-
turbing the natural deposits through either physical or chemical means.
• Introduction of chemicals and anthropogenic sources of water may destroy, dis-
turb, or dissolve original depositional features and deposits. Sources of these
external change agents include
• Stormwater runoff
• Leaking sewers
• Landfills
• Old dumps
• Underground tanks
• Underground utilities
• Pipelines
• Septic systems
• Wastewater treatment plant discharges
• Industrial sites
• Fertilizer application
• Pesticides and herbicide application
• Vehicle exhaust deposition
• Old cemeteries
• Golf courses
• Fire-fighting efforts
• Tanker spills
• Brownfield sites
• Abandoned buildings
• Power plant particulate and water discharges (nuclear and coal)
• Acidic precipitation
5.2.2 Information Sources, Integration, and Evaluating Usability
To counter the challenges faced by mapping the geology of urban regions, geologists have
to be more creative and diligent in pursuing the information necessary to adequately
understand the geology of the near-surface urban environment.
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