Online version: PDF - DTIE

UNIT 5: THE SUSTAINABLE SITING, DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF TOURISM FACILITIES
171
• Number of tourist arrivals;
• Patterns of visitor arrivals and length of stay;
• Tourist activities;
• Number of local people living in the area;
• Facility design;
• Destination management strategies;
• Characteristics and quality of the surrounding environment.
While the concept of carrying capacity works well in theory, its practical application
can be challenging. When determining the levels at which the threshold should
be set, it is necessary to consider what level of activity can be considered too
much, and what level of environment modification can be regarded as acceptable.
Natural resource management researchers often use the ‘Limits of Acceptable
Change’ principle, which attempts to set measurable limits to human-activityinduced
changes in natural areas. This principle is widely used in the management
of natural parks and protected areas.
S
E
C
T
I
O
N
2
2.3 Environment Impact Assessment (EIA)
The next step is to study the potential impacts on the environment of the proposed
development, and how they could be avoided or reduced. The method used for this
is known as the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA).
EIA is a procedure to forecast and assess the environment implications of proposed
developments. It provides the opportunity for:
• Identification and accounting for direct and indirect 1 environment
impacts before a decision is made as to whether the proposed
development is to proceed as planned;
• Modification of development proposals in order to avoid and reduce the
potential environment impacts.
EIA is about identifying environment impact, that is the change in environment
conditions that will be induced by the proposed development. This change is
compared with the environment situation as it would be if the development did
not occur. The natural environment is not static: there are different processes
and rates of change in all ecosystems, and assumptions must be made as to the
natural changes of the site. For example, in an EIA of a beach resort, it would
be necessary to study the rate of natural change of the shoreline, the ecological
succession of the coastal vegetation, patterns of erosion and deposit, etc. In
contrast, in an EIA for a visitor centre on a rocky cliff, generally a far less dynamic
ecosystem than a coastline, a description of the present state of the environment
may be sufficient.
1
An EIA asseses both direct
and indirect impacts of
a proposed project. For
example, when building a
beach resort, the clearing
of costal vegetation on
the immediate hinterland
can have direct impacts
on the beach ecosystems.
It can change the natural
patterns of deposit and
erosion, and increase the
silting of shallow waters.
This may in turn increase
silting in nearby lagoons
and estuaries that will
reduce the growth of fish
and shellfish. An indirect
impact of the proposed
development could
therefore be the losses
encountered by the local
coastal fisheries industry.
The EIA Process
The main stages of the fully-fledged EIA process are:
1. Screening: Establishing the need for an EIA.
2. Scoping: Determining the scope of the EIA.