Tuesday, June 11, 2019

Critically discuss how THREE selected environmental tools or methods Essay

Critically discuss how THREE selected environmental tools or methods could be applied to minimise the environmental impacts of - Essay Example soupcon farms with many of such structures occupy a lot of space on the landscape. Onshore rise farms atomic number 18 always about three kilometres away from the shoreline. The turbines in these farms are located in hilly areas since cuckold blows heavily on hilly areas. Wind turbines cause landscape and visual effects depending on their chassis at a particular area, their height, size and colour. The effects may also depend on their site tracks, buildings, their grid connection, and transmission lines (Murgante et al., 2011). According to Ottmar et al (2011), trail turbines have a number of impacts on the environment. These include visual impacts, noise impacts, effects on land use, and effects on the birds that live more or less the wind farms. In addition, there are electronic interferences and constraints on the natural reserve area s. During the construction of a wind turbine, there are some pollutants that released into the atmosphere. The wind turbines are seen to be very vociferous and they are also unsightly, thereby interfering with the natural beauty of the landscape. Sustainable Development Commission (2009) disagrees that wind farms are noisy and explains that the levels of noise from wind farm is equal to the background in rural places at night. Despite their negative impacts on the environment, onshore wind farms play a crucial part in achieving renewable energy targets. However, the many advantages that come with the farms can only be realised if proper planning is done. The contemporary wind farms are mostly large and not only help in environmental conservation, but also bring a lot of benefits to the communities that live around the farms. Among the advantages of using onshore wind farms is that wind is available free of charge and appropriate technology is available to harvest energy from wind a s illustrious by Sustainable Development Commission (2009). Moreover, although the initial costs of installing wind turbines are high, importanttenance cost are relatively low afterwards installation. It can also be used to generate power in rural areas where there is no power connection. Given the varying impacts to the humans, landscape aesthetics and the surrounding environment that implementation of such project poses it is critical that environmental managers employ tools to manage this impacts. Thompson (2002) lists various tools and methods that can be used for environmental forethought and environmental performance improvement. To manage the impacts of the 40 turbine onshore wind farm project EIA, LCA and GIS as the most appropriate environmental management tools. EIA has been selected because it helps to predict the impacts of a project and propose mitigation measures while GIS allows environmental managers make decision based on spatial relationship of features. LCA a llows decision makers to carry out a comprehensive assessment of the life cycle of the project thereby facilitating decision making. Environmental Impact Management EIA is a tool used in decision-making whose main purpose is to not only identify and evaluate the likely environmental impacts of a given project (Glasson et al., 2005). EIA is

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