Environmental problems – An overview - Environmental Deterioration and Contamination: Problems and their Management - page 26

- Promoting solar energy;

- Improving climate observations in Africa;

- Supporting disaster management in Central and South America;

- Managing water resources in Asia;

- Improving agriculture and fisheries management;

- Forecasting meningitis outbreaks.

GEOSS coordinates a multitude of complex and inter-related issues simultane-
ously. This crosscutting approach avoids unnecessary duplication, encourages syner-
gies between systems and ensures substantial economic, societal and environmental
benefits.
In classifying ecosystems, the US Geological Survey's (USGS, 2013) EROS—Earth
Resources Observation and Science Center (EROS, 2013) is currently leading two
projects to classify and map ecosystems in a standardized, robust, and practical man-
ner at scales appropriate for on-the-ground management. The aim of the projects of
National Land Cover Database (NLCD, 2006) and the Land Cover Status and Trends
Reports (Land Cover Trends, 2009) is to construct standardized geospatial ecosystem
models, which enable the assessment of climate change effects on ecosystems. Spatial
data on ecosystem distributions can be used for a variety of other applications, includ-
ing conservation planning, resource management, and analyses of the economic value
of ecosystem benefits. The new, 2011 NLCD version is scheduled for 2013.

5 ENVIRONMENTAL COMPARTMENTS:AIR,WATER,AND SOIL

Environmental compartments can be managed only in the context of the whole system;
water can be prevented and managed in a sustainable way only together with soil and
sediment, as well as with wastewater and atmospheric deposition. Soil can properly
be managed together with groundwater, atmospheric deposition, precipitation, runoff
water and seepage, solid erosion, deflation, surface water and sediments at floodplains,
etc. Wastes endanger all of the environmental compartments, meaning that sustainable
waste management should be harmonized with chemical substance, water and soil
management, based on the same theory, legislation and practice.
In the European IPPC Directive —Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control
(IPPC, 2008)—the European Union (EU) defines the obligations with which industrial
and agricultural activities of high pollution potential must comply. It establishes a pro-
cedure for authorizing these activities and sets minimum requirements to be included in
all permits, particularly in terms of pollutants released. The aim is to prevent or reduce
pollution of the atmosphere, water, and soil, as well as the quantities of waste arising
from industrial and agricultural installations, and to ensure high-level environmental
protection. The Directive requires a permit from industrial and agricultural activities
with a high pollution potential. This permit can only be issued if certain environmental
conditions are met, so that the companies themselves bear responsibility for preventing
and reducing any pollution they may cause. The industrial and agricultural activities
with a high pollution potential are defined in Annex I to the Directive. This includes
energy industries, production and processing of metals, mineral industry, chemical
industry, waste management, and livestock farming.