ABSTRACT
Land is the primary surface component of watersheds and land-based anthropocentric activities are the major source of their water contamination. In addition, urbanized watersheds exhibit a diversity of land uses and landscapes with high levels of environmental damage often present. Given these characteristics and challenges, the first step of sustainable watershed management must accomplish evaluation and restoration tasks: (1) prevent further land contamination and degradation; (2) preserve those land areas that are undamaged and relatively undamaged; and, (3) remediate and rehabilitate degraded brownfields to the fullest extent possible. These three tasks can be thought of as principles forming the basic framework for the first step of sustainable urban watershed management. Based on the definitions of sustainability and sustainable development, attainment of these tasks represents sustainable development activity.
A sustainability model for any location in the world may seem impossible because of the sheer number of potential variables that greatly increase the complexity and because of the many differences between countries. However, this is just not the case. We defined sustainability as creating and maintaining conditions under which humans can exist in productive harmony to support present and future generations. We also examined what is meant by “productive harmony” in the definition of sustainability and concluded that productive harmony applies to the environment. Therefore, elements to build a model for sustainability include calculating the three basic elements, which are:
Understanding the natural environment
A detailed analysis of the aspects of any activity or operation
Evaluating the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of risk reduction actions
By combining these three elements we arrive at an equation with an output termed the Sustainability Index and is presented as:
To evaluate whether the Sustainability Index can actually be effective at lowering environmental risk, increasing sustainability, and achieving environmental stewardship, it must implemented at operating manufacturing facilities and put through rigorous testing. This was accomplished for a period of 10 years that included 5 two-year evaluation periods, at as many as 67 manufacturing facilities in 12 countries using the Sustainability Model. Over the 10 year period, improvements in Risk Reduction Measures have been realized by an average of 80% resulting in a significant reduction in environmental noncompliance and releases of hazardous substances to the environment and has greatly improved the sustainability of each facility.
The most significant challenge over the 10 year implementation and evaluation period was changing cultural attitude and behavior. Up until the 1970s there generally was a disregard for the environment that perhaps had persisted for centuries. The 1970s saw the birth of the environmental movement. The 1980s and 1990s saw the passage and implementation of most of the major environmental laws of the United States and in many other countries of the world. The United States and many other developed countries have made significant progress at cleaning up the environment and making many places a better place to live for us and all the other animals and plants on Earth. However, much remains to be done even in the United States. The most difficult actions that have yet to be taken but are required, relate to changing our cultural attitude and behavior toward Earth.
The success of implementing the sustainability program outlined in this book could not have happened without acknowledging and overcoming a cultural attitude and behavior ingrained in most capitalist organizations which is a constant drive for growth and profit first and everything else is second. Hopefully by now each of you have come to the conclusion after reading this book that if humans do not change their behavior there might not be a place for us on Earth in the future. The issues and challenges surrounding and weaved within the solutions for overcoming pollution will take commitment and sacrifice from each of us. One person may not make much of a difference but collectively we can and must.
