Australian Deteriorating Environmental System - Research Paper Example

Problems surrounding the Australian Environmental System – Role of Environmental Management Policies Introduction Environmental issues have become great point of concern for the governments, experts, policy makers and the general public all around the globe. At present there are certain environmental issues that have turned in to serious global environmental threats like global warming, water and air pollution and waste management etc. These issues challenge the world community to restructure their current environmental policies and look for the more efficient ways to handle and cope up with these problems (Fitzsimons and Robertson, 2003, p215). The world’s smallest continent and sixth largest country of the world Australia owns a diverse geography ranging from snow capped mountains to tropical deserts and coastal areas. At present, Australia is also facing wide range of environmental problems including waterway health, soil salinity, logging and wood chipping, biological diversity, climate change problem, deforestation, agriculture clearing and overgrazing, conservation problem, carbon emission problem, marine conservation, land clearing, waste management and pollution caused by nuclear testing and radioactive contamination (Ladson, and Finlayson, 2002, p568). These issues have both direct and indirect impact upon the economy of the country and the human land use. Furthermore, the human activities that are conducting through the utilization of natural resources are also badly influenced by these environmental issues. There is growing body of thought that believe that the mismanagement of Australian environmental policies is responsible for generating these problems (Fitzsimons and Robertson, 2003, p215). The environmental policies often fail to address and control certain issues behind the evolution of these environmental problems and as a result, the country faces serious economic, social and environmental threat in form of deterioration of certain environmental landscapes. The development and growth rate of certain associated sectors is also badly affected due to these problems that in turn, affect the overall development of the country. The following discussion aims to highlight two major issues that are badly affecting the environmental system of Australia including the salinity problem and coastal dune system development. In this regard, the essay focuses specifically upon the salinity problem at the Murray River and coastal dune development at the Gold Coast Australia. The essay describes the importance of these sites and explains how the problems here are affecting the human lives and development. Furthermore, the essay identifies the major weaknesses of the Australian environmental system management policies that become the base for the creation of these problems and also put forward some workable suggestions and recommendations that can assist the authorities to minimize the consequences of these problems. Salinity at Murray River The Murray Darling is the longest river system of Australia that is ranked number fifteen among the world longest rivers. The Murray River basin is located in the south-east side of the country. It covers almost 1.05 million square kilometre area i.e. 14 percent of Australia. The river flows across four states of Australia and the capital city territory as well. Almost three quarter of the area of New South Wales, two third of total area of Victoria, nearly fifteen percent area of Queensland and eight percent of South Australia is covered by this river. More than twenty major rivers of the country come to the Murray River and at the same time there are many ground water systems run through this river (Allison et al, 1990, p20). Murray River plays an important part in the social as well as economic lives of the Australian population. According to the estimated, two million people depend upon the Murray River to work within the basin and for the supply of water. Furthermore, one million people living outside the basin also rely on the Murray River to meet their water requirements. This dependency affirms that the river has significant contribution in the economic output of the country. One third of total output of the Australian natural resources based industries is produced within the Murray River basin. This output approximately worth $10 billion annually. These figures show that the Murray River is among the most fundamental and important resource that fed the economy of the country. The salinity of the Murray River is an important point of concern that needs proper management of the environmental policies. The livelihood and well being of millions of Australians either living in the urban or rural areas heavily depends upon the Murray River. The output produced by the industries based at the Murray River basin play a vital role for the Australian economy (Stauffacher et al, 2003, p87). These products are daily consumed in the country. The river possesses great social and economic value because the industrial as well as the agriculture development of the country is also affected by the water quality of the river. The economic importance of the river drastically requires the government and the related authorities to formulate sustainable economic and environmental management policies in order to assure long tern productivity of the basin. However, at present the situation of the river appears to be the most critical environmental threat for the country. It is found that the river is facing the serious problem of salinity that badly affects its water quality. There is an important point to notice in this context that the salinity is mainly exported through the upland streams. The streams coming from the New South Wales especially contains huge quantity of salt that used to be even more then the salt coming through the rainfalls (Stauffacher et al, 2003, p87). The salinity problem was noticed in min 1980s as a major factor that badly affected the water quality of the river. In 1989, there was an agreement signed between the Commonwealth, New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria. Through this agreement, the related parties agreed to coordinate for the management of the salinity and drainage issues related with the Murray River basin. This strategy was given the name of Murray-Darling Basin Commission Salinity and Drainage Strategy and the salt interception scheme and other long term plans were implemented for the management and control of the salinity problem (Herczeg et al, 1993, p84). Some of these schemes claim to generate positive results and it is said that the MDB – Murray Darling Basin salinity and drainage strategy has successfully worked for minimizing the salinity effects upon the river at Morgan. There were some plans and strategies formulated by the Murray-Darling Basin Commission Salinity Audit (MDBC 1999) and the Australian Dryland Salinity Assessment worked for the provision of some policies that can help in mitigating the salinity, however, most of their plans failed to address the problem effectively because the problem, of salinity is spread over such a large area that it becomes difficult for the authorities to provide robust measures for reducing the salinity. Despite the agreements and implementation of certain schemes, the salinity remain a critical issue for the Murray river and by the year 2000, the salinity level of the Murray river go almost 20 percent beyond the recommended drinking standard of World Health Organization. However, this ration used to be 30 percent about thirty years ago and there is some level of improvement observed in mitigating the salinity at the Murray River. This is great point of concern for the general people, industrialists as well as for the authorities (Stauffacher et al, 2003, p87) Salinity is a complex as well as wide issue and it is not very easy task to handle the matters related with the salinity problem (Dyce et al, 2001, p63). However, the solution to this problem is very essential and much needed. In this regard, it is very important that the schemes, plans and strategies to cope up with this problem must be supported by the government, interstate actions as well as community cooperation. The failure of the certain policies and plans of the authorities lays in the fact that their plans and schemers are mostly based on measurements of different climatic factor over a short time period and thus, have no reliability and validity. The climatic factors like ground water levels, salt loads, stream salinity etc are sensitive to climatic variability and must be measured about the time period of no less than 20 years so that the plan can work for the mitigation of salinity over long time period (Dyce et al, 2001, p63). The river covers wide area and in these areas the patterns of the weather change also differ. The policies and plans to control the salinity of the Murray River must also formulate keeping in view the diverse culture of the covered area of the river. The stream salinity can be controlled by making several changes in the land and water management policies. For example, the release of water from the reservoirs, water diversion for the purpose of providing water for irrigation and the formulation and implementation of the salt interception schemes can help in facing the critical challenge of salinity (Herczeg et al, 1993, p84). There is need to formulate effective policies for the rehabilitation and maintenance of the water quality of the river. The formulation and successful implementation of effective policies requires adequate resources as well as political will that can support the execution of the plans and strategies. There is also an essential requirement to create precedent and standards for better waste management and controlling other environmental problems. Dunes Development at Gold Coast The Gold Coast is situated at the East coast in the Queensland state of Australia. This coastal area is surrounded by high mountains and there are over hundred thousand hectares of the national park around the coast. The population of the Gold Coast has the largest growth rate in the country; however, the population living at the coast is under half a million. It is one of the most important tourist destinations in Australia and every year the coast welcomes millions of tourists that come here to enjoy sunny weather and pristine beaches. Gold Coast has great economic importance because it employs many countryman as well as the foreigners in the hospitality industry. There are certain other industries and trading sectors that are developing at the Gold Coast including the yachting and leisure boat industry. It is not just a tourist destination but also an employment opportunity for many of the Australians (Charman and Murphy, 2000). The importance of the coast from the social, economic and tourism point of view insists proper management of the environmental policies related with the coast in order to assure safety. It is important to concentrate over the issue of security at the coast because severe beach erosions have occurred at the Gold Coast. The coast possesses a dynamic environment featured by tidal zones, fore dune and hind dune areas. The dune areas work for the reduction of the fluctuation impact of the shoreline and also to reduce the probability of erosion. The management of the dune development become a critically important issue when it comes of the Gold Coast. The coastal dunes the developed due to eh accumulation of the marine sand that is transported by waves. The onshore winds play the main role in the creation of the sand dunes. The dune system must be developed and managed effectively to assure the balance between the erosion and replenishment and as a result at some of the locations the adequate beach areas are lost and it affirms that in order to guarantee the protection of the coastal beach, the effective management of the dune system development is very important to assure the environmental integrity of the coastal area. (Wallace et al, 2002, p1077) During the major erosion events, the sand dunes work for the sand storage that is used for the building of the offshore bars. In 1995, it was estimated by the Gold Coast City council that the dune at the Gold coasts store less than the necessary volume of sand to buffer a 1:50 storm and there is great possibility that in case of storm the foreshore seawall would be exposed to the storm due to unavailability of required volume of sand in the dunes. The Gold Coast city council also worked for the achievement of vegetated sand dunes that can help in acquiring high volume of sand. As a result, there could be more sand available for the building of the sand bars at the time of erosion and it will help in the protection of the beach at the time of the storms as well (Bryant et al, 2000, p223). It is found that at present the sand volume at the dune of the Gold coasts is not significant enough to assure the safety of the coastal area from erosion and there is need of taking some strategic steps and plans for the effective management of the development of the dune system at the Gold Coast. This is because; the most important measure that can help in the effective management of the dune system development at the Goad Coast is vegetation because there are several benefits that can be derived from the vegetation. The issue of the dune development management required the attention of the authorities and it is very important to promote the trend of native dune vegetation at the coast. The vegetation allows developing a seed bank for the future generation of the plants. At the same time, the vegetation also works for increasing the volume of sand in the dunes (Hilton and Harvey, 2002, p189). The native dune grass supports the growth of the sand dunes because it traps the windblown sand not allowing it to escape from the beach system. Thus, it can be said that the issue of less volume in the sand dunes at the Gold Coast can be handled though the vegetation. It is very important that the related authorities must take adequate actions to assure the proper management of the vegetation process at the coastal area so that the dune development system can work effectively for the storage of sand and ultimately, the probability of the erosion will be minimized. Conclusion The above discussion reveals that the Murray River and the Gold Coast are among the most important landscape of Australia. These points have great importance in the lives of the Australians because they provide variety of services to them. The Murray River fulfils the water requirement of the population and at the same time serves as an important industrial centre where different industries remain involve in the production process and significantly contribute to the national productivity of the country. On the other hand, the Gold Coast is also an important tourist destination that offers employment to the local and foreign people and also supports the development of certain industries. These sites play significant role in determining the livelihood of the people of the country. These are much more important than just a geographical landscape of the country because they fulfil the consumption and productivity requirements of the country and every change occur to these sites has the tendency to directly affect the economic and social life of the population of Australia. Thus, the effective management of these landscapes is very essential for ensuring the productive and safe life of these places for long period of time. The social and economic importance of these two landscapes insists that there should be proper management of these places to assure the safe and long term utilization of these places. However, it is found that at present both of these places are facing serious environmental threats. The Murray river faces the problem of decline in the quality of the water that is mainly caused to the salinity problems, whereas, the Gold Coast faces the problem of less than required volume of sand in the sand dunes present at the coastal areas. These problems are affecting the utilization of the Murray river water and the security of the Gold coast and in turn the economic output and tourism trends are affected from these problems. Thus, it is very important to take some serious initiative for the mitigation of these problems. It is found that the government and related authorities use to take some actions and plans for the management and control of these issues but despite their efforts the intensity of these problems in still very high and there is need of taking some more strategic steps for the prevention of these problems. The salinity at the Murray River could be controlled through the management of upstream water because it is found that most of the times the salt is exported by these upland streams in to the Murray River. If the flow and salt level of the upland streams will be managed effectively, the there will be great chances that the problem of the salinity in the Murray River will be reduced up to a significant level. As far as the Gold Coast is concerned, the solution of the problem heavily depends upon the effective management of the vegetation process at the coastal area. Thus, the entire discussion could be sum up with the conclusion that the Murray River and the Gold Coast the very important environmental landscape of Australia both from the social and economic point of views. The importance of these sites call for the effective management of the problems that are being faced by these places, in order to assure the continuity of the productivity of these sites. The failure of some of the policies and strategies of the government has resulted in mismanagement of the mitigating efforts and it is very crucial to restructure the policies and plans to assure the successful management and control of these problems. . References Allison, G. B., Cook, P. G., Barnett, S. R., Walker, G. R., Jolly, I. D. and Hughes, M. W. (1990). Land clearance and river salinisation in the Western Murray basin, Australia. Journal of Hydrology, 119, 1-20. Bryant, E.A., Young, R.W.; Price, D.M. and Short, S.A. (2000) Late Pleistocene dune chronology: near-coastal New South Wales and eastern Australia. Quaternary Science Reviews v. 13 pp. 209-223 Charman, P.E.V. and Murphy, B.W. (2000). Soils: Their Properties and Management, 2nd edition. Oxford University Press. Fitzsimons, J.A. and Robertson, H.A.(2003). Wetland reservation status and reserve design in the Wimmera, Victoria. Ecological Management and Restoration 2(4):140-143 Herczeg, A.L. Simpson, H.,J. and Mazor, E. (1993). Transport of soluble salts in large semiarid basin: River Murray, Australia. Journal of Hydrology, 144, 59-84. Hilton, M. and Harvey, N. (2002). Management implications of exotic dune grasses on the Sir Richard Peninsula, South Australia. Proceedings of Coast to Coast 2002 - "Source to Sea", Tweed Heads, pp. 186-189 Ladson, A. R. and Finlayson, B. L.. 2002. Rhetoric and reality in the allocation of water for the environment: a case study of the Goulburn River, Victoria, Australia. River Research and Applications 18(6): 555-568. Murray-Wallace, C.V., Banerjee, D., Bourman, R.P., Olley, J.M. and Brooke, B.P., (2002). Optically stimulated luminescence dating of Holocene relict foredunes, Guichen Bay, South Australia. Quaternary Science Reviews 21, 1077-1086 Stauffacher M., Walker G., Dawes W., Zhang L. and Dyce P. (2003) Dryland Salinity Management: Can simple catchment-scale models provide reliable answers? An Australian case study. Murray-Darling Basin Commission, Publication 13/03, Canberra. T.I., Dyce, P., Nathan, R.J, Nandakumar, N., Clarke, R., McNeill, V., Robinson, G. And Jones, H. (2001). Historical stream salinity trends and catchment salt balances in the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia. Mar. Freshwater Res. 52, 53-63, 2001. Read More