Online version: PDF - DTIE
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Online version: PDF - DTIE
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UNIT 5: THE SUSTAINABLE SITING, DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF TOURISM FACILITIES<br />
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• Number of tourist arrivals;<br />
• Patterns of visitor arrivals and length of stay;<br />
• Tourist activities;<br />
• Number of local people living in the area;<br />
• Facility design;<br />
• Destination management strategies;<br />
• Characteristics and quality of the surrounding environment.<br />
While the concept of carrying capacity works well in theory, its practical application<br />
can be challenging. When determining the levels at which the threshold should<br />
be set, it is necessary to consider what level of activity can be considered too<br />
much, and what level of environment modification can be regarded as acceptable.<br />
Natural resource management researchers often use the ‘Limits of Acceptable<br />
Change’ principle, which attempts to set measurable limits to human-activityinduced<br />
changes in natural areas. This principle is widely used in the management<br />
of natural parks and protected areas.<br />
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2.3 Environment Impact Assessment (EIA)<br />
The next step is to study the potential impacts on the environment of the proposed<br />
development, and how they could be avoided or reduced. The method used for this<br />
is known as the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA).<br />
EIA is a procedure to forecast and assess the environment implications of proposed<br />
developments. It provides the opportunity for:<br />
• Identification and accounting for direct and indirect 1 environment<br />
impacts before a decision is made as to whether the proposed<br />
development is to proceed as planned;<br />
• Modification of development proposals in order to avoid and reduce the<br />
potential environment impacts.<br />
EIA is about identifying environment impact, that is the change in environment<br />
conditions that will be induced by the proposed development. This change is<br />
compared with the environment situation as it would be if the development did<br />
not occur. The natural environment is not static: there are different processes<br />
and rates of change in all ecosystems, and assumptions must be made as to the<br />
natural changes of the site. For example, in an EIA of a beach resort, it would<br />
be necessary to study the rate of natural change of the shoreline, the ecological<br />
succession of the coastal vegetation, patterns of erosion and deposit, etc. In<br />
contrast, in an EIA for a visitor centre on a rocky cliff, generally a far less dynamic<br />
ecosystem than a coastline, a description of the present state of the environment<br />
may be sufficient.<br />
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An EIA asseses both direct<br />
and indirect impacts of<br />
a proposed project. For<br />
example, when building a<br />
beach resort, the clearing<br />
of costal vegetation on<br />
the immediate hinterland<br />
can have direct impacts<br />
on the beach ecosystems.<br />
It can change the natural<br />
patterns of deposit and<br />
erosion, and increase the<br />
silting of shallow waters.<br />
This may in turn increase<br />
silting in nearby lagoons<br />
and estuaries that will<br />
reduce the growth of fish<br />
and shellfish. An indirect<br />
impact of the proposed<br />
development could<br />
therefore be the losses<br />
encountered by the local<br />
coastal fisheries industry.<br />
The EIA Process<br />
The main stages of the fully-fledged EIA process are:<br />
1. Screening: Establishing the need for an EIA.<br />
2. Scoping: Determining the scope of the EIA.