Geoenvironment Impact Mitigation and Management - Sustainable Practices in Geoenvironmental Engineering - page 353

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Geoenviro nment Impact Mitigation and Management
10.1 Introduction
10.1.1 Geoenvironmental Impacts
As shown in Chapter 1, impacts on the geoenvironment come from stressors whose sources
include (a) natural events such as earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, typhoons, loods,
drought, etc., (b) activities associated with the procurement of life-support elements for
humans, such as mining for resources, drilling and fracking for extraction of oil and gas,
farming, and manufacturing, (c) disasters and failures associated with natural landscape
features and man-made structures and activities such as collapse of dams and holding
ponds, failure of pipelines carrying crude oil and bitumen, derailment of trains carrying
dangerous goods, etc., and (d) inadvertent and deliberate stressor impact actions such as
application of chemical aids in control of pests and dumping of hazardous wastes. The
adverse impacts generated by geoenvironmental stressors result in diminishing the natu-
ral capital of the geoenvironment—thereby reducing the capability of the geoenvironment
to provide the wherewithal to provide for the future needs of society. This, in essence, is
the picture of an unsustainable geoenvironment.
10.1.1.1 Types of Stressors
Chapters 1 and 2 show that regardless of the sources of stressors on the geoenvironment,
the stressors generated by the various sources can be grouped or classiied according to
the type of action or mechanism/process involved. The most useful way of classifying
stressors is to group them according to the types of action that would result from the appli-
cation of the stressor in question. Such a classiication of stressors would be as follows:
(a) thermal, (b) hydraulic, (c) mechanical, (d) chemical and geochemical, and (e) biological
and biological mediated. This kind of classiication scheme allows one to examine the
processes or actions involved and in conjunction with the appropriate knowledge of the
geoenvironment landscape, would permit one to determine the outcome of the impact on
the geoenvironment. Since the discussions in this topic are directed toward maintaining
the health of the soil ecosphere (see Figure 1.1 in Chapter 1), the types of geoenvironment
landscape information required refer particularly to soil properties and behavior.
10.1.1.2 Impact Mitigation and Management
Section 2.1.1 in Chapter 2 has provided some detailed information of the kinds of impacts
generated from the various types of stressors. One can obviate stressor impacts on the
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