Christine+Yim

WEEK 3[[http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/engineer/facts/87-040.htm|

http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/engineer/facts/87-040.htm]]

The effects of erosion.

Since my topic for the Robbins Park study is depth and width, erosion was a common factor that my data correlates to.

Erosion is caused by many factors. One uncommon one that most people don't know is that rain can cause erosion. The intensity that the rain falls and hits the soil can cause the soil to break from each other, becoming for vulnerable for erosion. Other common causes for erosion are wind intensity, water flow, and made-made movement. Generally, soils with faster infiltration rates, higher levels of organic matter and improved soil structure have a greater resistance to erosion. Cropped lands such as soil used in farming and other man-made construction are more vulnerable to all types of erosion. Soil that is rooted in by plants are more likely to remain stable and firm, while baron lands of loose soil arn't anchored in by anything, and therefore erode faster.

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Erosion completely ruins the planting cycle for farmers. When lands are so badly damaged from wind erosion, farmers must spend time retilling their land and refertilizing, risking them missing the plant's ideal growing season. Eroded soil can also cause air pollution. When thin, sandy textured soil is lifted into the air, it takes awhile for the particles to settle again. If dangerous chemicals are mixed in with the eroded soil, people may consume them into their lungs, or they may get into their foods.

Since we are going to conduct the Robbins Park study, erosion is a topic that is going to majory affect the status of Robbin's Park. Depending on how the measurement and data of Robbin's park turns out over time, we can measure the rate of erosion, and ideally find the causes of erosion and potentially delay or stop it from happening. Erosion can be dangerous for Robbins park because it can destroy certain animal's habitats and plantlife could be shifted and dropped off in an enviroment that isn't ideal for them. hb

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 * Sustainability** is the capacity to endure. In ecology the word describes how biological systems remain diverse and productive over time. For humans it is the potential for long-term maintenance of wellbeing, which in turn depends on the wellbeing of the natural world and the responsible use of natural resources.


 * Two well-accepted sets of sustainability principles** - the Natural Step and Cradle-to-Cradle frameworks - establish conditions for how we can develop our products, services, our individual lives, our economy, and our society in a sustainable manner.

• //What we take, make and waste//: The inputs, products, pollution and wastes of our industrial society - originating with fossil and radioactive fuels, mined metals and minerals, synthetic chemicals, pesticides, plastic, etc etc. - must not accumulate long-term in the environment as wastes. "Wastes" must ultimately be compostable or remain in closed-loop reuse cycles that don't contaminate compostables. All energy must eventually come directly and indirectly from the earth's one perpetual source of energy: the sun.

• //What we do to the Earth//: Biodiversity and natural systems - soils, forests, water, air, genetic material - must not be irreversibly degraded by human activities. Healthy natural systems allow us to eat, drink, and breathe safely.

• //What we need//: The bounty of the Earth - food, raw materials, natural systems - must be used equitably, fairly and efficiently so that the basic needs of all humans are met locally and globally.

According to [], an obnoxiously long pdf file, Minnesota's publication of Sustainable Development says that in order to allow activity to become sustainable the activity must....

• Meet people's economic and social needs

• Use renewable resources, such as timber and fish, at a rate that can be maintained over time

• Gradually reduce reliance on nonrenewable natural resources, such as coal and oil

• Reduce reliance on and limit the release of toxic substances that do not readily break down in nature

• Use all resources as efficiently and fairly as possible so that present and future generations can meet their needs

• Use land in ways that meet diverse needs, conserve financial and natural resources, and preserve its ability to meet future needs

• Reflect the interdependence of social, economic and environmental conditions

• Preserve the integrity of ecological processes and biological diversity