River Basin Management Environment in the UK

Question: Write an essay on River Basin Management? Answer: The environment agency is the leading public body which protects and improves the environment in the UK. It is a general trend that everyone should make sure that all the natural elements on the earth like the air, land and water are taken care of well in todays world in order to ensure that all the generations tomorrow inherit a cleaner and a healthier world. This work includes all types of cleanliness activities like cleaning up of rivers, ensuring that the flooding of rivers doesnt cause any damage, pollution incident are well taken care of, coastal rivers and coastal water basins are maintained well, contaminated land is cleaned up in order to ensure that the living conditions are improved and the wild life is also provided a better life to live in the world creating a better habitat for them. In this article we would cover the different aspects of river basin management including aspects which focus on public health, factors which contribute to the better living conditions, the bacteria prevailing because of human faecus and which might be responsible for a lot of living hindrances in the world. We would look at the data which is available and which has been researched on like hydrology, hydrogeology, abstractions which are available, status of ecology, ground water management units, river assessment under various parameters like temperature, bacteria because of various physical conditions, suspended solids and nitrate issues in the environment which could affect the health of the people, presence of bacteria, climatic change, water company and resource plans including the plans of promoting water efficiency. Introduction The Environment Agency is committed to ensure that water available in todays world is managed in a sustainable way which can benefit the users and the environment in all possible ways so that the users and the environment can benefit in the maximum possible way which would be a better option in managing the water resources even at the local level. River basin management River basin management is the approach which the Environment agency has been using to ensure that the combined efforts achieve the improvement which is needed in the South East River Basin District. River basin management is a continuous process of planning and delivery. The water framework directive issues a time period of 6 years directives which exist to prevent deterioration in the status of aquatic eco systems, to protect them and improve the ecological condition of the waters To achieve a good status of all the water bodies by the end of 2015 To meet the requirements of water frameworks directives in the protected areas To conserve the habitats and species which are directly dependent on water To progressively reduce and eliminate all types of pollutants in the environment today which would pose a greater threat to the environment at a later stage To progressively reduce the ground water pollution and to prevent the release of all types of pollutants into it The CAMS area The Adur and the CAMS area cover a total land of about 1073km2 where it encompasses the catchment of the River Ouse and the River Adur. The CAMS area is characterized by a major concentration of the urban development along with the south coast which includes the Brighton and Hove which have ports of Shoreham and Newhaven. This area attracts a lot of tourists from different parts in the world (Brighton and Hove City Council, 2004). Inland from the coast the area is normally rural with the presence of a lot of small towns and villages amidst the very attractive country side. Much of this area includes the Sussex downs and the High Weald areas of outstanding natural beauty AONBs which recognize the importance of this land and provide protection in order to protect the character and landscape value of these areas. Some of the main inland towns include Lewes, Uckfield, Haywards Heath and Burgess Hill. There is limited industrial exposure in this area and most of it is associated with the service sector, tourism, environment and recreation aspects which also includes agriculture to a minimum extent. Hydrology and Hydrogeology The River Adur and the River Ouse support a diverse range of habitats and they also support abstractions for public water supply PWS for agriculture and industry. The River Adur is hugely flashy in terms of nature as it responds quickly to the rainfall events and lower summer flows. The River Adur is also fed by the perennial springs constantly which emanate from the northern slopes of the regions which provide a limited quantity of base flow to some of the tributaries of the river. The River Ouse is the second largest river catchment in Sussex. It rises on the Tunbridge Wells Sands in the High Weald and flows predominantly east and then south over before cutting through the Sussex Downs to the English Channel at Newhaven. The Weald Clay also underlies much of the Ouse catchment and this also is a factor for the flashy character of the river as it is prone to winter flooding which is similar to the Lewes and Uckfield which has happened in 2000. It is the largest tributary where the River Uck also has a flashy character which is prone to flooding which is similar to its other tributaries like Bevern and Clay hill streams. The River Ouse has a rich history of navigation which has been managed to support various uses of these aspects like flood defence, fisheries aspects, flooding in the interest of the agriculture and other industries in terms of mills and iron workings and all these aspects form an important part of the PWS. All these aspects have resulted in the form of legacy complex arrangements of structures like weirs and sluices in order to regulate the flow and levels in the river (Federal Emergency Management Agency, 1994). The rivers are normally used to conduit to move the water from the reservoir to the abstraction point. The reservoir releases fundamentally alter the rivers hydrological regime. Summer flows are raised well above all the levels which would occur naturally (Floodplain Management, 1995). These factors have important consequences for water resources which are available in the river. This also helps the base flow of the tributary streams of the River Ouse where some of the parts of the area have also suffered from the significant flooding during the winter of the seasons in 2000 and 2001 where pressure from new development and rising household demand has been increasing with the rise in the need for water. All the resources which are available are well balanced between meeting of demands of the existing abstractions and the need to protect water from the river flows which meet the environmental and other stream requirements. There are various mechanisms in order to control the water flows and the reservoir water actions which is dependable on the ground water levels in different areas and these aspects are monitored constantly through CAMS which is used during the drought and flood monitoring. These investigations are helpful in numerous ways for abstractions, discharges, unit operations and distribution of water supplies to various areas on a need basis. There are various abstraction points in terms of ground water levels and bore wells which are located in Brighton and the rainfall is measured in various sites in such places. The ongoing collection and analysis of hydrometric data is essential for assessing the water resources and the sustainability issues which are around it. This is the most common scenario in almost all the countries which are mainly dependent on industries in terms of their growth as there are other factors which get associated with it like air and water pollution are related to each other (South East England Regional Assembly 1995). Whichever country we consider all of them have grown to a significant level and they have a similar kind of industries and growth factors which affect the lives of people in that country. We could also consider the facts whether UK has taken help from the other developed countries and whether they have implemented such factors to solve the issue. Many researchers have proved that UK could implement various measures to handle cases of air pollution however it faced a lot of issues to implement the measures and manage the system effectively (Sussex Downs Conservation Board 2004). The country which has seen a wonderful growth in all its aspects, a country which has developed a lot by facing a lot of situations and a country which every developed country compare themselves with and a country with which every developed country would manage trade with has been facing issues in terms of managing their environmental system. UK is a country which has experienced a good economic growth and a country in which people have been very happy in terms of their standards of living but the people are also accepting the fact that it is coming with a big price which is facing an environmental issue which is becoming unmanageable like air pollution because they have to face it every day as they go out to carry on their normal lives as they have to go out for work, children go out to study and so many other factors. The government of UK has adapted and followed a theory which says that the countrys economic development is required and it is the only critical factor which can improve the environmental situation in any country. Many researchers have proven that if the economic development of a country is low then the no. of people who would be living in low economic conditions would be more which would increase a lot of conditions which would affect the environment in the country. If the economic development of a country is good the economic conditions of the people living in that country would also be good and the people who are rich would live a healthy lifestyle which would involve a good environment (Hays, 2008). There were many researchers who proved the significant relationship between the pollutants and the economic conditions of a country especially UK. It was proven that the relationship between the income of the people and the pollutants depend on a lot of factors like what kind of pollutants they might be, what are the effects of such pollutants and what are the places where such pollutants might be located and if there were any measures which were taken to solve such issues. The main reason behind UK facing such an issue is that it had gone through a lot of pressure in dealing with its economic situation in the 80s and 90s (Elevated Residential Structures 1990). That was the period when UK decided to adapt a theory called the EKC model which had its emphasis on the economic development than the environmental protection of the country. One more factor which contributed to such a situation of air pollution was that some of the areas in which the lower economic group of people were livin g much very distant from those of the people who were living in richer areas. This has caused a lot of issues where such areas of lower economic group of people never had any kind of a development or an improvement which has caused a lot of issues and such issues are still present in the country and have become a major issue for the economic development and growth of the country. One factor which the government of UK has not taken into consideration was that the areas which were filled with the lower economic group of people had the greatest benefits in terms of any kind of natural products (Williams, 2008). Let us look at some of the facts which have caused lot of air pollution in UK which have caused the economic development of the country face a major slow down (Francis, 2012). There are various factors which cause a major hindrance to the public health of the people because of various factors which are related to pollution and all of those which are linked to each other. Some of those facts are: There have been many researchers who have proved that there were a lot of surveys which were conducted in the years and they have proven that most of the cities in UK have not met any of the standards of national air One more research has proven that 16 cities of the worlds 20 cities which are air polluted are in UK Most of the Britishhave recognised the fact that there have to be some measures which need to be taken for protecting the environment and that most of the people in UK breathe a lot of polluted air and are getting affected and most of the environment smells like some of the gases One of the most critical factors which is affecting UK environment is Britishmeasures to improve their economic growth by establishing a lot of industries, coal plants and all such industries release a lot of soot into the air The factor which keeps all of us in a lot of thoughts is that the pollution in UK and Shanghai are so high that they are filled with smog and most of the times they cause a lot of interruption the air traffic Some of the other facts are that people cannot see the streets from their building in Shanghai and that there is no concept of a tour to the landscapes We have seen some of the facts about the air pollution in UK and the factors which cause such kind of air pollution. Let us look at the types of air pollution in UK and the particles which are constituted by air and what do such particles comprise of. The air pollutants in UK are comprised of a lot of elements like sulphates, dust, carbon, the soot which comes out of all the industries, soot which is produced by burning coal, burning any kind of material in the industries or any other fields and any other kind of soot Such particles of carbon cause a lot of damage to the lungs and most of the British suffer from various kinds of lung disorders which are caused by such pollutants Air pollution is one of the major reasons for most of the diseases as the kinds of particles which cause various other types of pollution can be purified in some way or the other by implementing various methods but the air pollution is one factor which can cause a lot of diseases and cannot be purified by adapting any methods. Most of the particles in the air when the country is filled with industries comprise of some kind of carbon which is made of a lot of smaller particles. These particles can enter into the lungs directly when an individual breathes and this can cause a lot of diseases which could result in causing death Apart from the factors which cause air pollution like the smoke and the soot which comes out of such factories dust which comes from storms is also one of the main reasons for causing air pollution There are various pressures and impacts of risk assessments in the characterization process because of the impact of human activity on surface waters and ground waters with the help of identification of the water bodies which is at a risk of failing to meet the Directives environmental objectives. With all these above factors it has been proved that the pressure and impact show that there is likelihood that a water body might fail to meet the required assessment requirements and would not meet the environmental objectives until some appropriate environmental actions are taken. The environmental objectives which are needed to be taken care of are as given below For surface water The achievement of good and ecological balance and good surface and water chemical status Achievement of good ecological balance potential and good surface water chemical status which is required for heavily modified water bodies HMWB and the artificial water bodies AWB Achievement of water related objectives and standards for all protected areas Conclusion The Water Framework directive is a part of the UK law and the Environment Agency which has a responsibility of protecting the environment and fulfills its objectives. The environment in Adur and Ouse can be protected from all types of pollutants related to air, ground water and surface water by taking up various projects on a yearly basis. The Adur and Ouse partnership is a new collaboration which aims to achieve more projects in terms of environmental protection by engaging the local community. References Brighton and Hove City Council. 2004. A different kind of city a unique destination - A strategic framework for tourism development for Brighton and Hove [online]. Available from: https://www.brightonhove.gov.uk/downloads/tourism/Tourism_Strategy_20 04.pdf (Accessed March 2004) South East England Regional Assembly. January 2005. The South East Plan, Draft for Public Consultation. https://www.southeastra.gov.uk/southeastplan/plan/cons_draft_jan05/execut ive_summary.pdf (Accessed 02/02/05) South East Water Plc. 2003. 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