Geoenvironment Management and Sustainability - Sustainable Practices in Geoenvironmental Engineering - page 3

be done, but also because we need to arrive at some sets of criteria that will tell us “what
constitutes an impact.” In many instances, we may not readily recognize or be aware of
the impacts from many sets of activities or events—natural or man-made. To some extent,
this is because (a) the effects of the impacts will not be immediately evident, for example,
in the case of long-term health effects, and (b) the effects or results of the impacts cannot
be recognized, i.e., we have yet to learn or recognize the results or effects of the impacts
on the various biotic receptors and the environment itself. The important lesson to bear
in mind is that any kind of geoenvironment impact, i.e., impact on and in the geoenviron-
ment, may, sooner or later, produce reactions and/or conditions in the geoenvironment
that may be benign, beneicial, or adverse to the geoenvironment.
1.1.2 Geoenvironment Impacts from Natural Events and Disasters
The impacts on the geoenvironment from “natural” events (disasters), for example, earth-
quakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, typhoons, loods, and landslides, to name a few, are obvious,
inasmuch as they are well reported in the daily newspapers. Recent events such as (a) the
late December 2004 tsunami in South East Asia, (b) the various hurricanes in late summer
2005 that battered the gulf region of North America, (c) the typhoons and loods in East
Asia and loods in Central America in the same period, (d) the earthquake in October
of 2005 in the Pakistan-Afghanistan-India region, and (e) the March 11, 2011, East Japan
Great earthquake and the accompanying devastating tsunami are reminders that natural
events can have considerable impact not only on the geoenvironment and its landscape,
but also on human life and other life forms (domestic animals and other wildlife).
Some of the dramatic impacts on the geoenvironmental landscape due to these natural
catastrophic events include (a) collapse of man-made and natural structures and other infra-
structure facilities such as roads, pipelines, transmission towers, etc.; (b) loods; (c) deposi-
tion of airborne toxic substances released from damaged structures such as the radioactive
nuclides released from the tsunami-associated damaged nuclear power reactors in the East
Japan earthquake; (d) landslides; and (e) ires. Displacement of thousands and even millions
of people due to loss of dwellings and loss of life due to collapsing structures, loods, and
landslides, ground contamination from deposited airborne toxic substances, restriction or
prohibition of agricultural and food-production activities in lands contaminated by deposi-
tion of airborne toxic substances, and ingestion of polluted waters are some of the impacts to
humans. All of these events and their impacts on human life and other life forms and local
and global societal response to such events merit serious and proper consideration and atten-
tion in topics and treatises devoted to the various aspects of these catastrophic events. They
are not within the purview of this topic. What is of direct concern in this topic is the impact
of anthropogenic activities on the health and carrying capacity of the geoenvironment.
1.1.3 Anthropogenic Forces and Impacts on Geoenvironment
The intent of this chapter is to provide an introduction (a) to the many basic issues that
arise from impacts and assaults on the geoenvironment resulting primarily from anthro-
pogenic activities and (b) to the kinds of geoenvironmental engineering practices oriented
toward restoring and/or preserving site (or region) functionality and carrying capacity of
the geoenvironment, i.e., sustainable practices. We consider the geoenvironment to consist
of the terrestrial (land surface) ecosystem. As seen in Figure 1.1, this includes the aquatic
ecosystems contained within and contiguous to the land mass. Many of the driving forces
responsible for these impacts and assaults can be attributed to actions of production and