Geoenvironment Management and Sustainability - Sustainable Practices in Geoenvironmental Engineering - page 11

(2002) and the Rio Summit declarative statements of principles, it follows that development
of the necessary knowledge and tools to address the goals of sustainability is required.
1.3.2.2 Impacts from Natural Resource Exploitation
Arguments against consideration of the environment, and speciically the geoenviron-
ment, as a limited natural resource are generally based on a very limited appreciation of
the totality of the geoenvironment as an ecosphere, and also on negligent attention to the
many adverse impacts attributable to anthropogenic activities. Not all the geoenviron-
mental resources are nonrenewable (e.g., forest resource). However, for those resources
that are renewable, overuse or overexploitation will surpass their recharge and replenish-
ment rate, thus creating a negative imbalance. Is geoenvironmental deterioration a threat
to human survival? Commoner (1971) has examined the overall environmental problem
and has posed the question in terms of ecological stresses: “are present ecological stresses
so strong that—if not relieved—they will suficiently degrade the ecosystem to make the
earth uninhabitable by man?” His judgment? “based on the evidence now on hand,…the
present course of environmental degradation, at least in industrialized countries, repre-
sents a challenge to essential ecological systems that is so serious that, if continued, it
will destroy the capability of the environment to support a reasonably civilized human
s o c i e t y….”
The declaration issued at the beginning of U.S. National Environmental Policy Act
(NEPA) of 1969 recognizes “the profound impact of man's activity on the interrelations of
all components of the natural environment, particularly the profound inluences of popu-
lation growth, high-density urbanization, industrial expansion, resource exploitation, and
new and expanding technological advances” and further recognizes “the critical impor-
tance of restoring and maintaining environmental quality to the overall welfare and devel-
opment of man.” The signiicance of this declaration cannot be overlooked. We can easily
appreciate the need for environment protection and sustainability of the geoenvironment.
The geoenvironment is the resource base that serves as the engine that provides for
the various elements necessary for human sustenance. Through resource exploitation and
industrial activities, it is the source for everything that is necessary for the production of
food, shelter, and clothing. It is also the habitat for various land and aquatic biota. Adverse
impacts to the geoenvironment and its ecosystem need to be minimized and mitigated if
one wishes to undertake the necessary steps toward sustainable development. Management
of the geoenvironment is required if a sustainable geoenvironment is to be obtained.
The sets of forces needed to sustain a forceful economic climate, and provide for a
dynamic population base or population growth, can be gathered into two main groups.
These are deined by some very clear factors:
• Urban-industrial: This grouping includes those efforts and industries associated
with the production of food, shelter, clothing, and economic health .
• Socio-economic-political: The grouping of factors that include the social, eco-
nomic, and political dimensions of a society.
The subjects covered in this topic will deal with stresses on the geoenvironment result-
ing from the various activities associated with society and its desire for development.
The framework within which these will be examined will be conined to the one deter-
mined by the urban-industrial factors deined above. This by no means diminishes the