Rashim Deepika
Environmental planning is the process of facilitating decision making to carry out development with due consideration given to the natural environmental, social, political, economic and governance factors and provides a holistic frame work to achieve sustainable outcomes.
Environmental Planning concerns itself with the decision making processes where they are required for managing relationship that exist within and between natural systems and human systems. Environmental planning endeavors to manage these process in an effective, orderly, transparent and equitable manner for the benefit of all constituents within such systems for the present and for the future. Some of main elements of environmental planning are
· Social and economic development
· Urban development
· Regional development
· Natural resource management and integrated land use.
· Infrastructure systems
· Governance frameworks
The environmental planning assessments encompass area such as land use, socio-economics, transportation, economic and housing characteristics, air-pollution, noise pollution ,the wetlands, habitat of the endangered species, flood zones susceptibility, coastal zone erosion, and visual studies among others, and is the ability to analyze environmental issues that will facilitate critical decision making.
Developing resources in an economically sound and environmentally sensitive manner is a complex process that requires broad based technical expertise. Our planning and management staff must have a wealth of knowledge and experience so that they are able to see innovative solutions where others see overwhelming problems. The way planners respond will have lasting impact on cities and towns. They specialize in developing creative concepts that effectively address the environmental constraints of a site, as well as the political and fiscal constraints on a project. It is plea to Sh.Y.V.Reddy (former RBI, Governor), chairman of Fourteen Finance Commission, while submitting their valuable report on 31-10-2014, that every plan scheme must have inbuilt cost for those environmental factors, which get effected with every development activity then it may be a project of Roads, buildings or any of Infrastructure development, Tourism Industry Project etc. Number of tourist destination areas are developed because of rich wildlife resources it sustains and its scenic beauty. Tourism has stimulated the development of a variety allied infrastructure and facilities, such as hotels, lodges and camps, airport and airstrips. Wholesale and retail business have also been established to offer goods to the Tourist Industry. Roads and other communication facilities have also been developed to facilitate tourism development even employment opportunities to local communities .Despite its positive socio-economic impacts, this industry is beginning to have negative environmental impacts in the area such as destruction of the area’s ecology , noise pollution, poor waste management, which needs to be addressed. Measures must be adopted for maintaining a stable and sustainable fiscal environment consistent with equitable growth.
To achieve a sustainable development, impact on biodiversity of urbanization, new infrastructure projects and other land use changes must be considered on landscape and regional scales. This requires that important decisions are made after a systematic evaluation of environmental impacts. Landscape ecology can provide a conceptual framework for the assessment of consequences of long term development process like Urbanization on biodiversity components, and for evaluation and visualizing the impacts of alternative planning scenarios. Method needs to be developed for integrating biodiversity issues in planning and strategic environmental assessment in an Urbanization environment, on landscape and regional levels.
Industrial estates are today perceived as on integral part of development in strategies of many countries, worldwide. The environmental impacts frame a concentration of large number of Industries in a small area or unplanned Industrial estate, can pose a serious threat to both local and global sustainable development initiatives. The formation of ecologically balanced Industrial Systems can result in numerous environmental and economic benefits.
Environmental Management Plan (EMP)
Preparation of environmental management plan is required for formulation, implementation and monitoring of environmental protection measures during and after commissioning of projects. The plan should indicate the details as to how various measures have been or are proposed to be taken including cost components as may be required. Cost of measures for environmental safeguard should be treated as an integral component of the project cost and environmental aspects should be taken into account at various stages of the project.
Introduction of Environmental Auditing
Environmental Auditing originated in the United States in the 1970s.Enveironmental Auditing is a management tool comprising a systematic , documented, periodic and objective evaluation of the performance of the organization, management system and process designed to protect the environment with the aim of 1) Facilitating management control of practices which may have impact an the environment 2) Assessing compliance with policies. This includes all emissions to air, land and water legal constraints the effects on the neighboring community landscape and ecology.
(The author is (MSc. Environmental Sciences) Chief Accounts Officer, PW (R&B)
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