Ecological survey

The construction and operation of buildings and structures of various purposes inevitably cause undesirable changes in the environment: the natural regime of surface and ground waters is disrupted, their reserves are depleted, the environment is polluted with production waste, as a result of rising groundwater levels, large areas are submerged. Major cities and industrial centers pollute the atmosphere and significantly change climatic conditions. As a result of human activities, natural landscapes are transformed and the relief of the earth's surface changes. Therefore, at the survey stage, the task is to select for building ecologically less valuable sites with low fertile soils or without soil cover, which are inconvenient to process, etc.

The development of construction in our country, the reconstruction and reorientation of production leads to the need for legislative regulation of the relationship of man with the natural environment, aimed at the rational use of natural resources, their preservation and augmentation. Since the main task of engineering surveys is the study of the natural conditions of construction, there is no doubt how important their role is in complying with the adopted environmental regulations.

First of all, these laws must be observed when carrying out engineering surveys. This means that in preparation for exploration work, precautionary measures should be envisaged and implemented, excluding the possibility of unjustified losses of crops, deforestation, pollution of surface and groundwater, the occurrence of fires, the death of wild animals and birds. In addition, it is necessary to avoid interference with the natural course of natural processes, in particular, not to cause the occurrence or activation of landslides, thawing of frozen soils, soaking subsiding and swelling soils. Upon completion of surveys, it is necessary to carry out liquidation works (high-quality grouting of wells, especially those that have exposed aquifers, backfilling of pits, other mine workings and excavations, etc.) and remediation measures that ensure further use of land in agriculture, forestry or fisheries. Particular attention should be paid to the restoration of soil cover in those areas where it was disturbed.

This, however, does not limit the role of surveyors in nature conservation. The prospector participates in the choice of a construction site or highway, he comes first to the place of future construction and comprehensively studies its natural conditions in order to take them into account in the design of a future construction. Therefore, survey materials and recommendations developed by prospectors should help select the location of buildings and structures of the designed facility, where their construction and operation would minimally disrupt the natural course of natural processes in an environment undesirable to the environment, do not cause the emergence and development of anthropogenic processes that adversely affect the stability of buildings and structures, as well as the surrounding nature.

When justifying the solution of subsequent design tasks (the layout of buildings and structures at the selected construction site, the development of design schemes for buildings and structures), the surveyor is also obliged to direct the designer to ensure that the design decisions that are made most closely match the local environmental conditions of construction, so that each building and structure of the designed object has been incorporated into the existing natural environment. Such an approach will not only enhance the efficiency of capital investments in construction, but also protect the environment from the harmful effects of human economic activity on it.

Of particular importance in complying with environmental requirements are the recommendations formulated by surveyors for the production of construction works, which are far from always carried out by builders. Therefore, on the construction of all large objects, a surveyor should be included in the group of authors' supervision over the production of construction work. Their participation in supervision will contribute to a more rigorous implementation of recommendations for nature conservation.

However, no matter how carefully the project was developed, in many cases it is impossible to avoid the harmful effects of the impact of the constructed object on the environment. The construction of hydroelectric power plants, for example, is always associated with the flooding and flooding of large areas, which significantly changes the natural conditions for many kilometers around. Any industrial production inevitably affects the environment, polluting the air, groundwater and surface water, changing the heat, radiation and water balances in the surrounding area, etc. All this necessitates the implementation of protective measures, the efficiency and effectiveness of which are often determined by the quality of predictions made by surveyors of changes in natural conditions under the influence of the construction and operation of buildings and structures of the designed facility. Development of reasonable and high-quality forecasts is possible if the basic patterns and causal relationships between individual components of natural conditions are discovered and studied, their possible and most probable changes as a result of human activity in general and under the influence of the construction facility in particular are analyzed and studied. For this reason, the role and importance of surveys in complying with the fundamentals of land and water legislation and laws on nature protection and the subsoil during construction development of the territory are increasing dramatically. A correctly compiled forecast allows the development of effective preventive or protective measures, which in turn will contribute to the preservation and rational use of other natural resources in the sphere of material production of land resources of the country.

In many cases, the direction and intensity of the development of the predicted processes do not always correspond to the observed ones. For example, a lot of valuable land was lost as a result of the unforeseen on its scale processing of the banks of reservoirs created on the largest river in the country - the Dnieper. Absolutely unexpected was the flooding of the territories of some large cities, metallurgical and chemical plants, and even elevators with groundwater. Relatively recently, the causes of the subsidence of the earth's surface within the major cities, the water supply of which is provided by groundwater, etc., have been identified. These facts indicate the need to focus and intensify the efforts of research teams to develop forecasts of changes in natural conditions under the influence of human activities, including its engineering and construction activities.

Compliance with the fundamentals of land and water legislation, laws on the protection of nature and the subsoil during construction, including the performance of engineering surveys, should be considered in three aspects:

compliance with these regulations in the performance of work related to engineering surveys;

engineering survey materials should include a full range of raw materials that will contribute to the creation of such projects of buildings and structures, the implementation of which in practice will minimally change the natural conditions;

On the basis of survey materials, forecasts of possible changes in natural conditions under the influence of engineering and construction activities of man should be developed, as well as effective preventive and protective measures aimed at reducing the extent of this effect should be provided.

When planning the development of industrial areas, it is necessary to consider the possibility of environmental overloads. In order to combine the economic requirements and the tasks of nature conservation, it is necessary to strictly limit the production in such areas, which can be placed without any inconvenience in other regions. An example of such overloads can serve as the Donbass.