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Environmental Assessment

Environmental Resource: An environmental resource is anything useful to society. This could be anything that humans find beneficial in their environments, or surrounding environs. Everything that humans use and treasure can be a valuable resource. There are many different kinds of valuable resources. Plants and animals, food from animals and plants, wood for fuel, fabrics used in clothing, heat energy, building materials, coal and oil, are all valuable resources.

Spatial Scales: A number of environmental systems may be analyzed on global or regional scales. Large open systems may not be the only important part of our environment. Many aspects of our environment depend on the type of spatial scales we consider. For instance, large open spaces such as oceans and rivers may not be the only important components of our planetary environment, depending on the other factors such as continental drift, tectonics, volcanoes, earthquakes, continental shelf, ice caps, glaciers, landforms and climate.

Physical Environment: The environment consists of everything that exists in solid form, liquid or gaseous form. However, some elements such as light, water, heat, magnetism and gravity cannot be observed at Earth’s surface. These physical factors play a crucial role in the Earths ability to produce life forms, creatures and plants, among others. A lot of life is dependent on these elements, thus we need to keep them in balance so as to maintain our health.

Climate Change: Weather and climatic changes are a major cause of concern for environmental experts and the general public. A sudden change in weather conditions could lead to disastrous effects. There are two kinds of natural environmental factors that could lead to abrupt climate change. First is an abrupt climate change caused by volcanic eruptions which release enormous amount of aerosols, second is a gradual change caused by climate change.

Natural Environments Analysis: Different factors affect the Earths atmosphere and environment. These factors can either be human made or natural in nature. Therefore, the Earths environment is categorized into different types of environments. Among these are habitats (which can either be land, ocean or freshwater), biological systems, ecosystems, human systems, ecosystems, carbon cycles, atmospheric circulation, precipitation and climatic change. These factors have their own individual impacts on the Earths environment, thus it is important to effectively manage them in order to prevent drastic changes.

Human Systems Analysis: Humans are the main drivers of environmental degradation. They introduce a number of environmental resources such as wastes, toxins, pesticides, air particles and radioactive material into the ecosystem. This results in a depletion of these natural resources. A lot of these environmental resources are used by humans. For instance, in a country with limited resources the number of automobiles on the road would be much less than in countries that have abundant environment.

Marketing Aspects of Environmental Assessment: Marketing is also one of the main factors responsible for the environmental impacts. The marketing of products and services has direct and indirect effects on the environment. The direct effects include direct use by humans, direct disposal of chemicals and waste materials and direct destruction of physical environmental factors. Indirect effects of marketing include indirect effect of the economy of a country on the quality of the environment. An efficient market strategy will therefore help in the management of the quality of the environment. In addition, this will also help in improving the economic standing of the country.

Emphasis on Environmental Assessment: It is important to take full account of all the factors that affect the environment to avoid serious environmental problems in the future. An effective environmental assessment system involves the process of gathering, analyzing, interpreting and presenting findings about the environmental impacts. The scope of this assessment can be broadly divided into two main components. First of all, the physical factors include those that affect directly the living organisms and their environments and the second component is the biological factors.