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Landscape Alterations

Sarah Simon

10 min Read Time | June 1st 2022

Key Takeaways

Anthropogenic activities such as settlements, commercial uses, land-use change, and forestry activities are major drivers of landscape alterations. This causes cascading ecosystem changes and regime shifts in ecosystem functioning.

When assessing the impact of landscape alterations, make sure to focus on the environmental impacts to contextualise the impact (i.e., habitat fragmentation and loss, erosion, weathering, and others). Social impacts are covered in a separate topic.

Make sure to analyse the depth, breadth, and persistence of the impact.

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What it is?

“Landscape alteration implies habitat fragmentation, habitat loss (i.e. reduction in the total amount of the habitat), habitat isolation and modification of the structure of the landscape.”

Landscape alteration is caused by a number of activities from different industries. The main anthropogenic activities include agricultural expansion and ranching, mining, exploration, urbanization, project developments such as the building of roads, dams and reservoirs, and others.

The world has lost a third of arable land due to erosion or pollution as global food consumption, industrialisation, and urbanisation soars.

Changes to the land can speed up natural processes such as weathering and erosion. Deforestation can lead to soil and water erosion. Air pollution, causing acid rain, can cause weathering or even break down the Earth’s surface.

Long-lasting impacts, such as oil spills, fertilizers, wastewater, etc. can effectively change the landscape as well. Ecological devastations occur when oil or other toxic substances leak onto land and destroy habitats and suffocating plants, and eventually impacting water bodies.

Source
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/landscape-alteration

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Impact assessment

The topic discusses impacts of human activities on the landscape, e.g. habitat fragmentation and loss, erosion, and biodiversity loss.


The introduction should be tailored to the context and type of impact being treated.


The core analysis should capture the company’s impact in relation to the broader issue by providing the following information:

  • If applicable, how much of the commodity did the company source? This is likely to be reported in tonnes. Or, if the landscape alternation is linked to a significant event or chain of events as a result of the company’s core operations, document what took place by quantifying the impact.
  • Evaluate the environmental impacts: how are the habitats, ecosystems, and plants affected? Did the land-use change cause soil and water erosion or contamination?
  • Try to be as specific as you can: where are the changes in landscape taking place, and since when? How long has the impact persisted?


Good to have:

What are the environmental peculiarities of the areas where the impact is happening?



No matter what the company’s activities are, you may go back to the Logical Model if needed.

Common mistakes:

  • Not treating the main activity of the company or not being comprehensive about its activities

  • Mixing other types of environmental impacts (e.g. water pollution, toxic waste) rather than discussing landscape impacts

  • Lack of quantitative data about the actual impact

  • Only quantifying the companies’ activities and not the impact.

    • E.g. only saying that the company has, for example, 44 wells but not mentioning how much this amount of wells is likely to disturb.

  • Discussing social impacts


Also, ask yourselves the following questions:

1/ The breadth of the impact

  • Is the impact local, national, or global?

  • How many species or people are concerned?

2/ The depth of the impact

  • Is the biodiversity or people concerned deeply affected, or does the issue just marginally impact them?

  • Are the changes brought by the issue profoundly changing society or the planet?

3/ The persistence of the impact

  • How long would the impact described last for? Months? Years? Decades?

  • How reversible is the impact described in the impact analysis? Can it be easily stopped/extended?

Find more about evaluating the scale of the impact in Step 5: Assess scale and value.

Additional Information specific to Extractives & Minerals Processing industries

Oil & Gas - Exploration & Production

The exploration and production (E&P) industry’s activities can have significant impacts on landscapes. Examples include alteration through land use for exploration, production, disposing of drilling and associated wastes, and decommissioning of onshore and offshore wells.

Coal Operations

Surface mining and mountaintop removal can alter the landscape, removing vegetation. Acid mine drainage is particularly significant: it is highly acidic water, rich in heavy metals, formed when surface and shallow subsurface water comes into contact with coal mining overburden and can have harmful effects on plants.

Metals & Mining

The development, operation, closure, and remediation of mines can have a range of impacts on biodiversity, such as alterations of landscape, vegetation removal. Acid rock drainage is a particularly significant risk: it is highly acidic water, rich in heavy metals, formed when surface and shallow subsurface water come into contact with mining overburden.

Construction Materials

Construction materials companies often operate their own quarries close to processing facilities. Quarrying requires the removal of vegetation and topsoil. It also requires the blasting and crushing of underlying stone deposits. The process can lead to permanent alterations of the landscape.

Useful Links

  1. Good sources for mining:

    1. “Mining is responsible for 7% of the global forest loss as of 2020.” pg 82

    2. “Mining is associated with substantial landscape alterations, such as long-term soil damage, vegetation removal, and contamination of water and soil”

    3. “In Brazil, studies have shown that forest impacts from mining can extend 50 kilometers or more around mine sites.”

    4. Even though progressive rehabilitation – grading or revegetating sections of the mine as they close - is now a key aspect of closure planning, it could easily take 50 years or more for a site to blend into the surrounding forest, or for open pits to refill with water and become lakes connected to the watershed.

    5. “Global mining uses more than 57,000 km² of land”

    6. “Since the 1970s, extraction of metals increased by more than 75 %, non-metallic industrial minerals by 53 %, and construction materials by 106 %. The global extent of land area impacted by mining and quarrying are debated, but recent estimates range between 300 000 and 800 000 km.”

  2. A good proxy for wind power:

    1. https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy09osti/45834.pdf

“Approximately 0.3 hectares (ha) are permanently disturbed per megawatt (MW) of wind power installed capacity, and 0.7 ha/MW are disturbed temporarily during construction6;p12. Furthermore, wind turbines placed in forested areas may cause habitat disruptions that can exceed a 340 meters radius area for certain species or a habitat impact of over 24 ha/MW6;p21.”

Examples

Oxy's offshore and onshore operations are a threat to rich ecosystems across the US

Plains’ 29,563 km of pipeline assets have considerable land impacts across North America

TPI Composites' wind blades permanently disturb approximately 5,400 ha of land

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Step 1: Understand Impact

Learn to assess the different dimensions of impact

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