This blog will provide you information about Mitigation. We will discuss the Concept of Mitigation with an example, the term Environmental Mitigation along with the Mitigation Measures for Environment, Advantages and Disadvantages of Mitigation, the Applications and also Case Studies of Environmental Mitigation. This blog will provide concept of Environmental Mitigation measures, Advantages and Disadvantages and Application of Mitigation
1. Meaning of Mitigation:
“Mitigation is a verb that means to make something less painful, less severe or less serious”
Mitigation also refers to make any punishment less severe than before. In other words it means to reduce bad impacts of any act or anything.
It also helps to enhance positive effects of some situation or something. We can apply mitigation in every field of the world to make it better and help it to grow in a better way. Mitigation is useful practice to apply in any field, but Environmental Sector is in need of mitigation more than any other sector because it is destroying abruptly day by day. We will discuss Environmental Mitigation Measures, Advantages and Disadvantages of Mitigation in this blog.
Example of Mitigation:
Mitigation of flood damage means to take preventive measures to reduce the impacts of flood as possible. Etc.
Mitigation Hierarchy Steps:
Hierarchy means the system in which members of an organization are ranked according to their status. Following are the hierarchy steps of Mitigation:
i. Avoid
Avoiding the damage of species and natural processes is the best way to implement effective mitigation.
ii. Minimization
In case the impacts cannot be avoided, then they should be minimized for the conservation of species.
iii. Restoration
Third step focuses on restoring the damages ecosystem to achieve better ecological state.
iv. Offsetting
This is the last step that highlights the balancing of the impacts left behind after all previous steps.
These steps should be implemented according to their rank and value.
2. Environmental Mitigation:
Environmental mitigation is the approach to reduce all the bad impacts of environment related problems so Mitigation practices are applied to control the harmful impact on the environment. These practices might me expensive but they end up improving the quality of life and our environment. They are slow processes but eventually they are beneficial for deteriorating environmental conditions.
We should have tolerance to wait for the results and improved changes in the environment. We should give importance to environmental mitigation otherwise we will end up to more extreme environmental conditions in future. The nations that are taking environmental mitigation seriously, are the nations that are becoming more developed day by day and their life standards are very up to date. It is difficult for developing countries to spend on environmental mitigation but it is the necessity for better future.
3. Mitigation Measures for Environment:
We will discuss Environmental Mitigation Measures, Advantages and Disadvantages of Mitigation in this blog. Following are some of the Mitigation practices for Environmental Sector:
1: Hazard Mitigation Planning:
This is a practice in which we plan about strategies by predicting and also evaluating impacts of all possible environmental hazards. Environmental Hazards may be natural or artificial. Natural hazards are produced by the nature while artificial hazards are human driven hazards. Examples of Natural hazards are floods, earthquakes, tsunami etc. Examples of Man-mad hazards are Chemical accidents, Bhopal disaster, Dust Bowl etc.
2: Green Infrastructure:
Green infrastructure refers to green roofs, green building and many other eco-friendly structures for efficient resource management. Green infrastructure is adopted by many countries and so as the results are amazing. There is a visible and significant difference in past temperatures are the temperatures with green walls, green roofs and green buildings. If green infrastructure will be applied by many countries so it will create a significant positive impact on global warming.
3: Renewable Energy:
Renewable energy includes wind energy, solar energy or hydropower etc. The use of these energies will reduce the burning of fossil fuels and avoid the GHG emissions. Burning of Fossil fuels adds a large concentration of GHGs in the environment so if we shift to renewable energy sources, we can reduce GHG emissions on a large scale and it will help us in more power generation. Renewable energies have less or no GHG emissions and are suitable to replace Fossil Fuel burning.
4: Waste Reduction:
The act of waste reduction will cause great improvement in the environmental quality so the world is producing a huge amount of waste everyday if that waste will be reduced it will be easy to handle and pollution will be reduced. Waste reduction will help us to keep our environment clean. As we know that, landfills are the major source of Methane production globally. If there will be less wastes in the landfills, less methane will produce and our environment will be healthy and clean.
5: Pollution Control:
This practice will applied to reduce all types of pollution. This will help to enhance the beauty of environment. Pollutions include, land pollution, water pollution, air pollution etc. These pollutions contributes to most of the environmental issues that are degrading our environment at very high rates. Pollution control can act as multi-tasker. As it can reduce the pollution of all types and also eliminate many potential environmental issues on Earth in order to save the Earth.
All of these are mitigation measures for environment. This blog contains information about Environmental Mitigation Measures, Advantages and Disadvantages.
Technical Tools for Environmental Mitigation:
- GIS (Geographic Information System)
- Technology for monitoring and planning
- Digital EIA
- Climate resilient EIA etc.
What is Environmental Assessment and Its Types?
Environmental Assessment or EA, is a systematic process to evaluate the potential environmental impacts of proposed projects. It ensures that environmental concerns are integrated with decision-making.
There are some major types of EA according to its scale and performance in the following:
SEA
Strategies Environmental Assessment is a formulized, systematic and comprehensive process of evaluating the environmental effects of a policy, plan or program and also its alternatives. It provides the final level coverage to the environmental assessments on greater levels.
Benefits of SEA
- It can deal many programs.
- It is the advanced form of EIA
- Provide strategic instructions to improve policies and programs etc.
Future Trends in SEA
- Transformative evaluation within complex system
- Fostering regional cooperation and capacity building
- Integrating Climate Change and Sustainability
- Proactive and Systematic Approach etc.
EIA
Environmental Impact Assessment deals with detailed decision concerned with location and also design of a project. It address mitigation measures and negative impacts of environment. This report basically deals with main characteristics of a project to evaluate its environmental impact.
Benefits of EIA
- It is a good plan for a project.
- It addresses all the environmental impacts according to its baseline data.
- Predicts the risks of the projects to the environment. etc.
Future Trends in EIA
- Integration with Climate Change
- Expanded use of digital platforms
- Public Participation
- Addressing Social and economic issues etc.
Performance Matrix of Mitigation:
Following are the steps to evaluation Performance Matrix of Mitigation:
1) Risk Identification
The first step to implement in mitigation strategies is the identification or evaluation of Risk. This finds out which events and hazards can cause damage to a system.
2) Risk Assessment
The next step is risk assessment that helps us to find out the possibility and also the impact prediction of any damage that may occur. This evaluates the severity of risk.
3) Matrix Visualization
A risk matrix plots these two factors on intersecting axes, usually likelihood on one axis and so the impact on the other, creating a grid of risk levels.
4) Mitigation Strategy Development
This step involves the creation Mitigation strategy according to the severity of risk. It involves the steps of Mitigation hierarchy by acknowledging the risks.
5) Performance Measurement
This step comes after the implementation of the mitigation strategy so as it utilized Key Performance Indicators (KPI) are used to measure the performance.
6) Monitoring and Refinement
This is the last step that focuses on proper monitoring and effectiveness of the mitigation strategy. This also work for adjusting the strategies according to requirement.
These are the points used to check the Performance Matrix of Mitigation Strategy.
4. Advantages of Mitigation:
Following are some of the advantages of Mitigation:
● Reduced Risk:
Mitigation practices reduces the risks of potential environmental hazards where they are applied so it will reduce the risk and helps in reducing the damage if any environmental hazard occurs.
● Cost Savings:
It helps in saving the costs used for rehabilitating the damage caused by environmental hazards and so as disasters. If the protective measures or mitigation measures are taken before time. There will be reduction financial burden to manage the environmental hazard.
● Improved Resilience:
It helps in improved recovery and response of the society towards the bad environmental conditions so It built resilience against the environmental hazards and disaster, this helps to withstand the hazard easily.
● Environmental Benefits:
These practices will help to upgrade the environment and also helps to enhance its beauty. Along with the protection against environmental hazards, it will help in maintaining the environment.
● Social Benefits:
Mitigation provide social benefits as people interact with each other in a nice way when everything around them is under control. Mitigation makes a workplace safe and secure and also people working in that environment connect with each other in a nice way.
These are the advantages of Mitigation.
5. Disadvantages of Mitigation:
Following are some disadvantages pf mitigation:
● Cost:
There is a high capital cost of all types of mitigation practices. That is why they are not easy to be applied because it needs high capital cost. This cost is not refundable because it completely invests in mitigation measures.
● Time:
The mitigation practices are so much time consuming and their results are delayed for a long time and it needs tolerance to see their visible results. The results of mitigation measures are visible after a long time so patience in needed.
● Resistance:
Mitigation practices may lead the resistance of stakeholders. It is because the results are not so visual and need a huge capital cost is used. Most of the time the investor do not appreciate the mitigation measures and denies for helping in it.
● Unforeseen Consequences:
Mitigation practices may lead to some unknown consequences that can be even more dangerous than previous. These practices may lead to bigger environmental hazards than the past hazards. This can cause more damage than the problem treated.
These are the disadvantages of Mitigation. We will discuss Environmental Mitigation Measures, Advantages and Disadvantages of Mitigation in this blog.
6. Application of Mitigation:
We can apply Mitigation in present day rules and regulations in the following ways:
● Addition:
It means addition of beneficial laws to existing laws that serves mitigation goals so It will be the new addition to the previous laws.
● Elimination:
It means to eliminate the laws that disturbs the mitigation practices (If necessary) so It cause the elimination of laws that are not suitable for mitigation measures.
● Substitution:
It means to change the existing laws in favor of mitigation practices so it cause slight or significant changes in existing laws for mitigation measures.
● New Laws:
It means to make new laws that complement the mitigation practices so these will be completely new laws to followed and to maintain the mitigation practices in an environment.
7. Case Studies of Environmental Mitigation Strategies:
Following are some of the Real-world examples of Environmental Mitigation Strategies implementation:
Wetland Restoration for Flood Management in US
In Louisiana USA, after the hurricane named as Katrina, Wetland restoration was used as mitigation strategy for Flood Management. It was implemented on large scale and it improved resilience against hurricanes and floods, enhanced biodiversity and also increased Carbon Sequestration.
Reforestation and Afforestation in China
The project of Reforestation and Afforestation was named as “Grain-for-Green”. In China, noise pollution was at its peak. Green walls and noise barriers helped to fight with Noise Pollution and Air Pollution at the same time. This also increased the aesthetic value at a great level.
Mangrove Plantation for Coastal Protection in Philippines and Bangladesh
Mangroves are life saviors in the coastal region because thy minimize the environmental impacts of Cyclones, Tsunami. This mitigation strategy was implemented in Bangladesh and also in Philippines to improve their resilience against environmental hazards on the coasts.
Air Quality Mitigation in Delhi, India
Delhi was among the cities with worst Air Quality in the previous years. The mitigation strategy applied to control the pollution levels was introduction and utilization of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) for public transport to reduce GHG emissions at some level so it improved public health.
Urban Green Infrastructure in New York City
Urban Green Infrastructure proved useful in the reduction of stormwater runoff, improving the energy efficiency of the Buildings, and enhanced biodiversity in the urban regions. Just like New York City every city can improve the resilience against Air Pollution, Urban Floods and also other disasters by using Green Infrastructure in Urban Areas.
These are some of the Real-world Examples or Case Studies of Environmental Mitigation. We will discuss Environmental Mitigation Measures, Advantages and also Disadvantages of Mitigation in this blog.
8. Conclusion:
Mitigation practices can help you upgrade the condition of the sector under consideration. It helps to reduce harmful impacts and enhance positive impact whether it is for the environment or any other sector of life. It helps to find solutions for existing problems and also reduce their bad impacts. With public participation and Stakeholder engagement mitigation can be made more easy. We should try to implement mitigation practices in the environmental sector because it is in extreme need of these practices to control negative impacts of environment. Mitigation practices are taken for granted because of their cost and time, but they should be considered as important for present day scenarios.
To learn about more topics, Click the links below:
Comments