Importance of Environmental Planning

¶ … Environmental Planning

Human life could not exist without their basic needs being met. Humans need water, air, food, adequate space, and shelter to survive. However, humans need these things to be clean and safe. Today, emphasis is on protecting the environment. Many times focus is on protecting a certain plant or animal species, but protecting the environment does not stop there. Many things can threaten the human environment and endanger human ability to survive. This essay will explore the need to protect the environment so that it can sustain human life.

Humans face many threats to their environment that can have a significant impact on its ability to sustain life, or to maintain the quality of life for people within it. Waste Management is an essential part of maintaining an environment that is safe for humans. Humans must be protected from biological agents that can harm or kill them. Controlling communicable disease involves many areas such as wastewater treatment, swimming pool guidelines, solid waste management, insect control, and rodent control. Humans can also be harmed by exposure to excess radiation. Maintaining an environment that is free from disease causing agents is essential to human life.

Any place where humans come into contact with one another or with biological agents is a potential source of disease. The larger the number of people in an area: the greater the chances for the development of disease. Disease control and environmental planning is an important part of city planning and typically falls under a local, state, or Federal Department of Health and Human Services. These agencies are responsible for administering programs to help keep the population as disease free and healthy as possible.

One does not have to look far to find the devastating effects of disease mechanisms in human society. Perhaps the most famous is the Black Plague of the Middle Ages. The plague not only killed millions; but changed the course of human history forever. It had significant effects on the world economy, labor force, commerce, and class structure in society (Routt, 2008). The most recent example of a disease that changed human adaptation and behavior is Avian Flu. Although at this point, the disease has not been as widespread as expected, fear of the disease and steps to prevent spread of the disease altered the willingness of people to travel and resulted in measures designed to help prevent entry of the disease into a certain area (CDC, n.d.).

We now know much more than we did in the past about the spread of disease and how to prevent it from traveling through an entire population. However, this knowledge does not negate the threat itself. Environmental planning and disease prevention must be a part of the everyday life of every human being. Diseases are constantly changing. They are mutating, and new ones are emerging continually. Effective environmental planning means staying current on the latest disease trends and developments. That means continually updating information and programs to meet the needs of the most current potential environmental threats to human society.