Geoenvironment Impact Mitigation and Management - Sustainable Practices in Geoenvironmental Engineering - page 356

Land use site
Farmland, infrastructure,
built environment,
resource recovery, etc.

Present site status Natural virgin land

Soil properties, quality,
characteristics,
Biodiversity, habitats,
landscape,
Hydrogeological setting,
Regional controls,
( climate, rainfall, etc. )
etc.

Site attributes—what makes
the site what it is ?

Baseline ( pre-impact )
site functionality

Likely stressors and
geoenvironment impacts on site
resulting from planned projects
or activities

Stressors
‡ermal, hydraulic,
mechanical, chemical,
biological, etc.

Intended land use

Evaluate impacted site
functionality

Does not meet
geoenvironment
sustainability
objectives and/or
objectives of planned
projects or activities

Meets design and
geoenvironment
sustainability
objectives for planned
projects or activities

Implement requirements
for acceptance of post-
impact site functionality

Acceptable
post-impact
site functionality

Required attributes

FIGURE 10.1
Example of protocol used to assess changes in site functionality as a result of planned changes or activities to
a speciic site.

under consideration. The choice that one makes must take into account the type of planned
project or activity contemplated. Also seen in the right-hand group of boxes of Figure 10.1 is
the speciication of required attributes, i.e., attributes required to meet such requirements as
geoenvironment sustainability objectives and design or planned project objectives.

10.2.2 Site Restoration

Site restoration means restoring the impacted site to pre-impact state . A good example of site res-
toration to pre-impact state is the planned rehabilitation of farmlands contaminated by the
fallout of radioactive nuclides from the disastrous Fukushima nuclear power plant explo-
sions following the 2011 East Japan earthquake (Nakano and Yong, 2013). Rehabilitation of
the contaminated farmlands to precontaminated productive farm status is the present site
restoration goal.
There are many cases and reasons why restoration to pre-impact state may not be the prime
objective of site restoration. The following considerations are important in arriving at decisions
and objectives concerning the technical details and implementation of site restoration plans:
• The pre-impact state of the site may be such that it does not meet the site function-
ality requirements such as that represented by a derelict site (i.e., a site that has
served no useful purpose because of the lack of positive site attributes) and hence
would require restoration to some level of positive functionality.