Soil, environmental impacts erosion

Exploration activities are potentially damaging to the environment. The cutting down of trees in preparation for an onshore seismic survey may result in severe soil erosion in years to come. Offshore, fragile ecological systems such as reefs can be permanently damaged by spills of crude or mud chemicals. Responsible companies will therefore carry out an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) prior to activity planning and draw up contingency plans should an accident occur. In Section 4.0 a more detailed description of health, safety and environmental considerations will be provided. 

Introduction. Disintegration and erosion of surface layers of the world s soils may be the most severe of the environmental impacts caused by human... 

In small-scale farm production of ethanol a possible environmental impact could occur through removal of crop residues for use as a boiler fuel. Crop residues are important because they help control soil erosion through their cover and provide nutrients, minerals, and fibrous material which help maintain soil quality. However, not more than one-third to one-half of the residues from a grain crop devoted to ethanol production need be used to fuel the process. Also, there are several methods, such as crop rotation and winter cover crops, which lessen the impact of crop residue removal. ... 

Mechanical equipment used in combat operations to clear mines includes armored vehicles equipped with devices such as plows, flails, and rollers. This equipment clears a path by pushing mines aside or detonating them. It is not effective in rough or rocky terrain and against more advanced, off-route or wide-area mines. However, these advanced mines do not yet make up a large portion of the landmines already emplaced in Third World countries. For these reasons, and because of the potential environmental impact, such as pollution and soil erosion, heavy mechanical equipment is of limited use for wide-area clearance. 

A very well-known example of environmental impact during operations relates to the large sedimentation of the reservoir in the Three Gorges dam, in China. To deal with the erosion of soils from the hydraulic basin, which are mainly transported to the reservoir by the tributaries, additional dams have been constructed in several of the water lines to retain sediments and thus to avoid them reaching the reservoir. A program of forestation upstream has also been implemented. Furthermore the design of the... 

Development of the Environmental Policy Integrated Climate (EPIC) model and its predecessor, the Erosion Productivity Impact Calculator, began in the early 1980s.69 70 The first version of EPIC was intended to evaluate the effects of wind and water erosion on plant growth and food production. More recent versions also evaluate factors important to other environmental issues. EPIC is a onedimensional model however, it can estimate lateral flow in soil layers at depth. All versions of EPIC estimate surface runoff, PET, AET, soil-water storage, and PRK below the root zone—these complete the hydrologic water balance for an ET landfill cover. 

Using more coal to produce hydrogen will have a number of environmental consequences. Coal mining itself causes numerous environmental issues, ranging from widespread land disturbance, soil erosion, dust, biodiversity impacts, waste piles, and so forth, to subsidence and abandoned mine workings. Once coal has been extracted, it needs to be moved from the mine to the power plant or other place of use. 

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