Environmental and Social Impacts of Water Reservoirs

This assignment delves into the environmental and social consequences associated with constructing and managing a water reservoir. It outlines both positive and negative impacts, such as noise pollution, deforestation, biodiversity loss, and hydropower generation. The document proposes mitigation measures to minimize adverse effects and promote sustainable practices.

Running head: ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT
Environmental and social impact assessment
Name of student
Name of University
Author note

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ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT
Contents
Task 6: Environmental and social impact assessment.....................................................................3
Task 6.1: Environmental and social impacts...................................................................................3
References........................................................................................................................................7

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ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT
Task 6: Environmental and social impact assessment
A construction and management of water reservoir requires various activities and
operations to ensure that the water reservoir functions properly and negative effects are reduced
largely. The construction activities include manufacturing of equipments and machineries,
preparation of site, management of civil works and finishing the activities by assembling the
mechanical and electrical components to meet the requirements of the system effectively. Due to
the construction activities, both social and environmental impacts are created and even during the
management of a water storage reservoir (Dixon et al., 2013).
Few social and environmental impacts include high production of waste materials from
the construction site, cutting of trees, polluting the water, creating lots of noise, cultural heritage
of the place near to the construction site or water storage reservoir, crushing and
homogenization, transportation of raw materials and resources, etc. All these activities could
result in harming the ecological balance in nature as well as create pollution that can result in
making an unhealthy environment where people would have to live in the future. On the other
hand, the water storage reservoir has created some good social and environmental impacts such
as management of biodiversity, control of pollution, managing safety of dam, empowerment,
reduction of poverty and even maintain good values to preserve the cultural diversity of the place
too (Haddeland et al., 2014).
Task 6.1: Environmental and social impacts
Items Impact description Proposed mitigation
measures

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ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT
Construction site 1. Crushing,
homogenization, etc.
1. The crushing and
homogenization should be
done in a confined area
through management of
proper health and safety
measures.
Machineries and equipments 2. Creation of lot of noise
due to the construction
activities
3. Polluting the environment
and harming the ecological
balance in nature (Liu et al.,
2013).
2. The location of the
construction site should be
present at a distance from the
livelihood and ensure that
noise escalation is reduced to
prevent health related issues
resulting from high decibels
of noise (Mekonnen &
Hoekstra, 2012). Installation
of low emission burners can
also create less noise.
3. The wastes must be
disposed properly along with
incineration methods to
ensure that the wastes are not
generated in large quantities.

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ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT
Raw materials and resources
usage
4. Deforestation, i.e., cutting
of trees can also lead to
creation of negative
environmental impact
(Dixon et al., 2013).
4. Government of China
must implement proper rules,
regulations and laws to
prevent cutting of trees and
maintain a good ecological
environment and atmosphere
where people could live in
safely.
Water storage reservoir 1. Generation of hydropower
– The water storage reservoir
has made it possible to
generate hydropower and
finally produce more than
300 billion kWh every years.
2. Controlling flood and
heavy flow of water in China
– China has faced severe
problems due to the flood
and there has been a huge
economic loss as well.
3. Loss of aquatic life due to
1. As a mitigation measure,
hydropower generation
would also reduce the use of
coal and decrease level of
pollution too.
2. With the support from
Chinese Government, flood
has been controlled and
construction of many water
storage reservoirs has been
done as well (Haddeland et
al., 2014).

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ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT
the construction of dams.
The trapped nutrients can
result in eutrophication (Liu
et al., 2013).
3. Development of fisheries
in many rivers present in
Western Tasmania has
helped to create new
ventures related to the
production of fish in larger
quantities and even
generating enough scopes for
employment (Mekonnen &
Hoekstra, 2012).

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ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT
References
Dixon, J., Scura, L., Carpenter, R., & Sherman, P. (2013). Economic analysis of environmental
impacts.
Haddeland, I., Heinke, J., Biemans, H., Eisner, S., Flörke, M., Hanasaki, N., ... & Stacke, T.
(2014). Global water resources affected by human interventions and climate
change. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(9), 3251-3256.
Liu, J., Zang, C., Tian, S., Liu, J., Yang, H., Jia, S., ... & Zhang, M. (2013). Water conservancy
projects in China: achievements, challenges and way forward. Global Environmental
Change, 23(3), 633-643.
Mekonnen, M. M., & Hoekstra, A. Y. (2012). The blue water footprint of electricity from
hydropower. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 16, 179-187.