ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses a number of environmental hazards: population growth; loss of biodiversity; global warming; and ozone depletion in the stratosphere. It also discusses the causes and effects of global, atmospheric, and waterborne environmental hazards and examines the means of assessing and managing these hazards. Any engineering activity or development action involves the potential for exposure to one or more of the environmental hazards. A need exists to assess the significance of the potential environmental degradation associated with such activity. Ultimately, evaluation of the need for and effectiveness of various environmental mitigation measures is required. Regardless of the basic approach employed to make environmental decisions, a variety of criteria or standards are used to evaluate individual actions. Environmental standards can be categorized as being in one of the following categories: source control standards; environmental quality standards; risk-based standards; cost-benefit based standards; and community-based standards.
