Environmental Management of Floods in Sheffield - Report Example

Institution : xxxxxxxxxxx Title : Environment management Tutor : xxxxxxxxxxx Course : xxxxxxxxxxx @2010 Introduction Environmental management involves the management of the surrounding together with all the bio-physical components both living and non-living, thus the relationship between the living species and their habitant should be of mutual benefit to each other. This also considers the relationship of animal kingdom especially human beings and their environment in terms of cultural, social and economic context in the bio-physical environment. An effective environmental management strategy considers all the inhabitants and the activities taking place which can affect the conditions of the natural assets like forests, water bodies which supports the survival of the lives in these environments. The most essential requirement is to have a sustainable exploitation of the available resources but also consider things which can improve their conditions or maintain their natural status or their lustful benefit to the society (Hanlon, 2008). The system of management varies with the environment of concern and what is contained in it. So as to ensure that the environment is well maintained an assessment should be done before deciding on any project to be initiated and the possible impacts it is likely to have on the environment. Management of floods in Sheffield In June 2007, Sheffield experienced some spells of exceptionally heavy rainfalls which resulted to some unprecented events in the environment and evacuation of some people and properties. Although mostly people assume that floods are caused by heavy rainfall, there are some environmental conditions which are likely to result to floods, for example the lands which are prone to floods are usually broad and flat and near to banks of water bodies like rivers, dams or lakes. When the rains are heavy, much water is poured in these bodies leading to breakage of the banks and the water floods to the surrounding. There are is a large network of rivers like river Don, Sheaf and Loxley surrounding this city and when the rains are heavy their banks swell draining the waters over the city. Floods mostly occurs in areas which are below the sea level because rivers are slow in these areas and the volumes of water increases in these areas hence little increase in the volume leads to floods. The coastal areas are also prone to floods as a result of high tides, tsunamis or storms in the oceans. Several human activities can result to floods, for example, deforestation or clearing of forests. Trees helps to hold soil together, when cut down the bare soil is easily eroded and drained to rivers and dams causing rising of the level of water in these bodies and consequently resulting to floods. Poor drainage in the cities can also result to floods especially where there is little or no space between the buildings and other structures. The rain water collected may remain stagnant or may be slow to flow hence if the rains are heavy or continuous are likely to cause severe floods (Samuels, 2008). Immediate impact and significant risks caused by the flooding There are many risks that the floods are likely to cause to the lives of the residents of the city and their activities. The effects can either be long-term, secondary or primary based on the severity. Long-term is considered from the economic perspective, secondary effect is the contamination caused to the environment and primary effects relates to the physical damage. The floods causes economic damage to the environment affected, this is especially if it damages the infrastructures like buildings or walls leading to many homeless residents, It also affects the agricultural activities like farming hence causing droughts. The cost of putting up new infrastructures and feeding the occupants is too high and prevents the economic development. The floods may injure or kill many people. This is through drowning and others are harm by the collapsing buildings and mostly during the nights when everyone is indoor. There are many diseases associated with floods, for example the military fevers or pneumonia and other water-borne diseases as a result of the stagnant water in the surrounding. The water can be contaminated by the wastes disposed by the activities taking place in the city, for example, the sewages, the industrial wastes and chemicals like pesticides can be harmful to the health of the residents. Food poisoning may also occur as foodstuffs like the cereals may not have conducive places to store or dry completely for storage. People’s daily activities are affected as their movement is limited or the traffic is damaged. This occurs when the roads are damaged, colluption of bridges or traffic congestion hence people either remain stranded on the roads or spends most of their time struggling to move. Others are displaced from their areas of work like the farms or offices which are affected by the floods, the landmark buildings like Hillsborough football pitch and Meadowhall shopping centre were flooded. The lower part of the city in floodplain for metals and industries were also affected (Ward, 2007). Management of floods Although it is hard to prevent complete occurrence of floods there some things which should be put in place to reduce the severity of the effects. There are many things that the residents of Sheffield should consider so as to control or manage these floods. Although there are many agencies like water conservation agencies, redistribution and augmentation of surface and ground water operators and agricultural practitioners who are responsible for the management of environment and the risks which are likely to befall it, there are some things that they should consider for effective performance. They should consider ways of preventing the occurrence of the risks of floods before strategising on the recovery phase. This is best achieved through the assessment process. This is an evaluation of the contents of an environment so as to identify, predict or mitigate the bio-physical conditions of its content for proper determination of the way of maintaining them. For example, for the environment with the variety of natural resources like rivers and forests should formulate a wide management strategy which includes these resources for instance avoiding activities which can be of risk to these natural resources like fires which can burn the forests of chemicals which are likely to pollute the water bodies. This can also help to identify the strengths and weaknesses of these resources so as to determine the best activities of improving the conditions of these resources and maintaining them. Human activities like deforestation should be discouraged by the agricultural officers or people be taught on the proper ways of handling the forests like planting trees to replace the one cut down. This helps to reduce soil erosion hence raising the water levels (Adrian, 2000). Any project set upon the natural resources should have positive impacts on the social, economic and cultural development of an environment. Apart from identifying the resources available in an environment other objectives of environmental assessment are to: predict problems; identify ways of solving them and enhancement of positive effects. This offers a unique opportunity to reveal ways through which the environment can be improved thus facilitating sustainable development or the strategy of the society which improves the quality of living in it in present and in future. The conservation agency should consider putting up water reservoirs like dams which will collect and store the rain waters. This goes along with creating proper drainage systems so as to drain the rain water collected by the roofs the buildings to these storage systems. The environment agency officers should survey the site located for the reservoir to ensure that there is low underground water because these waters may raise the levels of stored water hence resulting to floods. They should also ensure that the walls made for the drainage and the dams are strong enough to hold the pressure of their contents. There should be some spillways or outlets to drain excess water although to an identified destination to make sure that all the water is under control. Sustainability is the key factor which should be considered in environmental management, this is the capacity of the endurance of various factors in an environment. This is considered in terms of creating the best environment for survival of human beings, the environmental resources should be maintained to suit the social, environmental and economical activities of the living things in it. It ensures that the resources are able to meet the present needs and those of the future generations. These involves: effective guard of environment, cautious use of natural assets, maintenance of stable economic development and social development considering the interests of everyone. This calls for the community to have an environmental conservation organization which ensures that all activities taking place are for the benefit of improving the management of the environment either by training people on the best ways of handling these resources or by living an example. People should be discouraged from interfering with the drainage systems for their personal interests or proper disposal of wastes to reduce the contamination of the water in case of floods. The thermodynamics law states that although the form of energy can be changed from one state to another, it cannot be destroyed or created thus the pollution of water in an area can easily spread to the others even though the contamination levels differs. This means that pollution should be treated when contained in a small place before it spreads to a diverse area. For example, the wastes from an industry should be treated before being released to drain in the rivers and oceans. Most industrial and commercial places should discharge their wastes to the public sewage treatments works responsible for the local sewage undertaker to ensure that all the wastes is treated to reduce the risk of contaminating water during the floods (Adrian, 2000). Environmental management systems For proper management of the risks which are likely to occur in an environment, there are some systems which should be set up. For example the fire and rescue services offer most effective services in the environment: it carries out an assessment to identify the hazards which are potential causes of risks and considers the control measures to prevent the occurrences of risks of floods, fire or environmental pollution. Although these systems are showing efforts to see to it that their decisions are effective there is still much to be done to ensure that the strategies are relevant to the recent societal activities. For example, they should have warned people against putting up residential and business buildings on the rivers natural floodplains which has resulted to squeezing of river Don in culverts and channels situated across the city. This plays the greatest part to cause the floods since when the rains are heavy, there is no space for the river to expand, the water get stagnant to all parts of the city. Recommendation To prevent future flooding the risk and rescue services should always review their strategies to ensure that they are up to date depending on the recent happenings. For example, if the initial assessments recommend that drainage should be made to drain the water into rivers, an improvement should be made to discourage people from cutting trees due to the increased architectural designs or ensuring that more are planted to replace the deforested. They should be keen on the recent needs and interests of the society. People should be discouraged from putting up buildings along the floodplains of the river for it to have a free breathing space in case of heavy rains, there should also be good drainage systems for the rain waters to be collected and drained to rivers. Conclusion The communities on flat and wide lands are prone to the risks of droughts and floods. This is because the flow of the rain waters is very slow hence heavy rains are likely to cause floods. The residents of these places should always be on their toes to discover and implement ways of being secure from these risks. All the safety measures of preventing and controlling the risks of floods which have the most severe effects on the societies should always be considered by anyone living in areas like Sheffield. The risk and rescue services should also be supported in their efforts to check on the security of the environment. Bibliography Hanlon D. (2008). Fire service manual (vol 2). London: The stationery office. Samuels P. (2008). Flood risk management: research and practice : proceedings of the European Conference on Flood Risk Management Research into Practice (FLOODrisk 2008), Oxford, UK, 30 September-2 October 2008. London: CRC Press. Ward C. (2007). Floods: a geographical perspective. Michigan: Wiley. Adrian J. (2000). Floods and flood management. Chicago: Springer. Read More