Geoenvironment Impact Mitigation and Management - Sustainable Practices in Geoenvironmental Engineering - page 355

10.2.1 Site Functionality
Much like the concepts of soil quality and soil functionality, introduced in Chapters 1 and
2, we can apply the same conceptual model to a site or even a region (assuming a site to be
on a smaller scale than a region) facing the threat of stressors from natural and anthropo-
genic sources. Site functionality essentially tells one about the capability of the site, i.e., the
present site usage and, more importantly, what the usage of the site could be if one makes
full use of all the attributes (properties and characteristics) of the site. There are at least
three reasons for determining or articulating the functionality of a particular site:
1. Pre-impact status —establishing the initial conditions, status, and usage of the site
2. Design status —stating the type, manner, and usage as the outcome of planned
human intervention
3. Optimum status —deining the potential (best beneit) usage and status of the site
To establish pre-impact status site functionality, one needs to determine the present usage of
the site, i.e., present status of the site. Examples of present status would include such landscape
or terrain scenarios as: natural virgin land, farmland, pastureland, developed land, natural or
cultivated forest, etc. Of the preceding scenarios, except for natural virgin land, all the other
land or terrain scenarios are land-use scenarios. This means to say that natural virgin land is a
category by itself and that all the other “present usage” scenarios fall into the land-use c at e gor y.
By deinition, land use indicates a land status that has had, or does have, human intervention.
Farmlands, cultivated forests, developed lands, etc., are all the result of human intervention.
Both design status and optimum status site functionality options classify under the category
of restoration of site to an altered status . Design status site functionality may or may not coin-
cide with optimum status site functionality. Obviously, this depends on whether the planned
(design) land use takes advantage of the full potential of the site, i.e., meaning that all the
attributes, properties, and site characteristics are exploited at their maximum potential.
10.2.1.1 Choice and Use of Attributes
What are attributes ? In this particular case, one should ask “what are geoenvironment attri-
butes”? Attributes are characteristics of a particular item. In the case of the geoenvironment
and in view of the subject of interest in this topic, the soil component of the landscape, we
are interested in the various elements or parameters that characterize the land or ground.
Simply put, the geoenvironment attributes of particular interest and concern are those that
govern soil health and behavior. These include soil composition (chemical, mineralogical,
biological, etc.), properties and characteristics, and the various factors and elements that
constitute a soil and the ground.
The decision on the attributes that need to be determined to characterize site function-
ality can be simple or arduous, depending on (a) the nature and extent of the geoenvi-
ronment impacts involved in the site and (b) the aims or objectives of the planned site
restoration, i.e., the land-use plans. In the example of the type of protocols used to assess
changes in site functionality in Figure 10.1, we show the importance and use of attributes
in assessment process.
The partial list of attributes seen in the second upper-right box of Figure 10.1 is a small
example of the kinds of properties, characteristics, data, and settings that one might choose
to gather. Obviously, the entire vast array of information is not required for each site or region