Construction And The Environment - Effects On Soil

Soil is definitely the mainstay of the environment, whether in its loose soft form or in the form of rock. The following are common ways in which construction activities distract the normal form of soil, thereby shaking the environmental mechanisms that the same support.

· Mining for building materials for example stone or clay for building blocks or for cement alters the normal form of the landscape. It leads to formation of derelict landscapes, most of which cannot support the normal forms of life. Open mines are also notorious for holding surface water in pools, most of which habour a different form of life.

· Blasting as is common in rock excavation destabilizes the ground, posing the dangers of earth movement like landslides. The breakage of rock enhances the rates of weathering, thereby breaking up rock even more faster.

· Mass excavation of topsoil deprives the ground of life - supporting soil stratum.

· Creation of cess pools and soak away pits for sewage disposal lead to the intoxication of soil. Treatment ponds have a similar effect.

· Activities leading to the reduction of water available, whether surface or sub surface, leads to a reduction in soil water, thereby altering its live supporting capabilities.

· Leaving open sections of soil like is common in embankment and uncovered sections exposes soil to agents of erosion, notably rain, thereby shaping the landscape as well as moving humus rich top soil from one section to the other.

· Compaction of soil, especially on a large scale and in many layers alters the normal stratification as well as penetrability by plant roots as well as percolation by water.

· Importation of alien soils of a different kind creates an inconsistency and as such a disjoint. It also creates an anomaly in the environmental patterns in the constructed area.

As noted, soil is a very crucial part of the environment and it needs to be treated with utmost care. Hampering the normal conditions of soil amounts to a distraction in the normal flow of life in the environment. Soil is perhaps among the most crucial pillars of life. It is also among the biggest victims of the activities of construction. This makes considerations on soil conservation measures in any construction works to be very carefully thought out and implemented. It is the duty of all the stakeholders involved to work together to reach the goal of minimum soil disturbance in all the construction projects they are involved in.

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Construction And The Environment - Effects On Climate

Climate change is definitely the most identifiable global concerns today. It has taken centre stage in world for and has raised many mitigative measures to counter the worrying trends. Construction is one of the contributors to climate change as can be derived from our previous examples, which are summarized below.

· Lowering of the water table, making it more difficult for plants to survive.

· Hampering with weather conditions for example by altering normal rain formation trends of a specific area.

· Clearing vegetation, reducing moisture available for rain formation.

· Reducing water available to water bodies with similar effects as above.

· Increasing water available in an area for evaporation and thus more precipitation in an area.

· Industrial and residential emissions, altering normal air conditions.

All these and more are ways in which construction activity has continually led to climate change. The conditions of an area are continually changed to form completely different ones. Some of the common direct results of these include:

· Depletion of the ozone layer, risking us to harmful radiations from the sun.

· Reduced precipitation, resulting to more cost of acquiring water.

· Increased precipitation, requiring more elaborate ways of removing excess water or even requiring project design changes.

· Reduction of food in the food chain, leading more food chain conflict and imbalances.

These are just but examples. The blatant truth is that climate change is becoming a very thorny issue and it needs to be addressed by all and sundry. All avenues available for averting this trend should be sought and followed. Key players in the construction industry ought to join hands with their counterparts, especially in the manufacturing industry, to come up with eco friendly products and procedures. Activities that lead to toxic emissions, for example, should be shunned as much as possible and if not, should be put at a minimum. Buildings should be provided with utilities that lead to less wastage, for example by reusing some materials. The issue of cost and value should be clearly addressed to make sure that the better advantage goes to the environment as opposed to the developer alone. Consultations should be done to ensure that all the hurdles to environmental conservation that arise in any project are properly handled at the earliest opportune moment.

It is always important to remember that our climate determines just how easy our tomorrow will be. It thus calls for all that are involved to put into consideration the idea of continuity in the construction project at hand.

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Construction And The Environment - Effects On Water

In this regard, we will consider the following types of water;

· Surface water: this refers to water appearing on the surface of earth. Examples here include rivers, lakes, oceans, swamps and so forth.

· Ground water: this refers to water appearing in the ground, also referred to as sub-surface water. It is usually contained in rocks known as aquifers and forms a level commonly known as water table. Water table is usually an intermittent and rises or falls depending on the amount available in the feeder for instance through percolation.

· Precipitation: this refers to the various forms in which water appearing in the atmosphere is availed to the ground. It takes the form of rainfall, dew, hail storms and the like.

A number of common construction activities can hamper the normal patterns of the said forms of water, consequently interfering with the normal form of nature. The following are ways in which this happens;

· Sinking wells for drawing water results to a lowered water table level. This, for example, strains the vegetation drawing water from the same, hampering their growth.

· Building extensive hard surfaces reduces the amount of water percolating into the ground, depriving it of subsurface water and resulting to a lowered water table.

· Clearing extensive tracts of land for construction activities reduces the levels of moisture in the atmosphere and currently reducing the rate of precipitation expected.

· Construction of water bodies like reservoirs deprives normal flow downstream, hampering the normal aquatic patterns. This could also lead to an increase in moisture in the air, resulting to more precipitation.

· Disposal of effluent from construction sites as well as built up areas into water bodies like rivers alter the ordinary quality of water, thereby changing the life supporting mechanism for aquatic life.

· Building of barriers like trenches will change the normal flow of surface run off, thereby altering the usual rates and patterns of percolation.

· Mass rain water harvesting whether in above ground or under ground tanks or reservoirs will also have similar effects.

While these are only examples, the truth is that construction has a remarkable effect on water patterns in the environment. This effect increases with increase in magnitude of construction work being undertaken as well as ignorance in limitative measures possible. It should therefore be a number one priority in every envisaged project to plan for ways of reducing tendencies of altering water patterns in our environment, for this directly affects the environment and all that it carries with it.

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Construction And The Environment - Effects On Vegetation

Vegetation is among the clearest indicator of life in our environment (probably second to the animals). It is also a key pillar in the environmental dynamics especially the weather. Vegetation takes different forms and shapes and vary from one type of environment to the other. Construction activities affect vegetation in the following ways;

· Construction materials. Construction has drawn a lot from natural vegetation in the following forms;

o Timber: this is the most common material in construction, since time immemorial. This could either be used in its raw form for example in posts or in machined timber for example tongued and grooved panels for ceiling construction. Frames for structural work like roofing and timber walls are also a very common use of wood. Other machined forms, for example plywood are also very common in construction. The tricky thing with timber for construction is that the preferred timber comes from hardwoods, which are rare, hard to breed and take a long time to mature.

o Roof covering: reeds and such vegetation have for long been used in the form of thatch for roofing, mainly in informal settlements but also in motels and hotels, especially beach resorts.

o Furniture: Timber furniture has for long been the most preferred in houses. This has a big impact on trees as most are purely out of wood and especially hardwoods which are very hard to come by as previously explained.

· Clearance for settlements: large forests and other such vegetation's have been cleared for settlement activities, whether for purely construction work or in combination with other activities like farming.

· Importation of vegetation and soils: introduction of alien plants, especially for landscaping compounds also affects the environment by changing things like normal photosynthesis activities by normal plants. Importation of soils will also lead to the support of different kinds of vegetation, especially where this is supplemented with irrigation.

· Dumping of material: The disposal of material, whether waste or excess spoil, introduces a new formation on which new forms of vegetation are most likely to grow. This may also lead the death of the existing vegetation.

· Dewatering of land: This is common in swampy lands and is mostly done to ensure good compaction of earth.

Following these examples, it is clear to see just how extensively the activities of construction have impacted on vegetation and by extension, on our fragile environment. It is very important to ensure that whatever technologies that are adopted in construction projects are environmental friendly, by reducing impacts to the lowest possible levels.

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