Environmental Friendly Sustainable Transport System

Question: Describe about environmental friendly sustainable transport system. Answer: Introduction Environment refers to the physical and social surroundings in which we live. The life of the human being is regulated by his surroundings. The surrounding of a person influences a persons behavior and way of living. It consists of several components, which are earth, air, water, solar energy and other resources. The environment provided us with every resource for our living and we are dependent on it as it influences our life. But, when this environment is adversely affected due to pollution it is also affecting the all the living beings including the humans. The damage due to pollution on environment is increasing with every passing year and its creating a threat to our existence (Entrans.co.uk, 2015). The environmental pollution is resulted due to multiple factors like wastage of resources, disposal of harmful wastes directly into the water, use of chemicals into the soil and emission of harmful chemical particles into the air. The transport system is impacting the environment adve rsely and a major reason for pollution (Gerdes, 2008). Environmental pollution and its types Environment is the surrounding of a living being which influences its life. It is affected by social, natural and psychological factors. The environment can be classified as micro environment and macro environment. Macro environment is further sub divided into biological and physical environment (Gifford, 2006). Micro environment The local surroundings of an individual is his micro environment. Macro environment- Its a broader concept. All the biological and physical factors that surround an individual are his macro environment. Biological environment It includes all the biological factors like plants and animals. Physical environment- It refers to land, water, air, minerals and etc. Pollution which affects the environment, is caused due to the fault of the pollutants that contaminate the environment is several ways. Thus, pollution is of several types, which are air pollution, soil pollution, noise pollution, water pollution, heat pollution and light pollution (Goodall, 2012). Air pollution- It is the most dangerous type of pollution, which happens due to many reasons. A huge amount of chemical substance is emitted by vehicles into the air when the fuel is burnt which pollutes the air. The smoke emitted by vehicles consists of harmful gases like carbon monoxide and sulphur dioxide which goes into the air and creates pollution. People are suffering from breathing problem like asthma and detected with cancer in the lungs. The emission of harmful gases causes other major problems like global warming, depletion of ice in the north and acid rain. Soil pollution- It is another important type of pollution which occurs because of use of harmful chemicals into the soil like frequent use of insecticides and pesticides which consists of dangerous chemicals. Soil erosion happens due to mining and deforestation which causes soil pollution. Noise pollution- When the vehicles cause irritating sound in the streets it results to noise pollution. Often we see people honking in the streets during traffic jams which results to stress , hearing problem and tensed environment. Water pollution- Water the reason of existence of the living beings. But it is contaminated regularly by the industries and factories. Often industrial waste which consists of harmful chemicals is drained directly into the water bodies. The aquatic life is slowly deteriorating with the rivers and ponds getting polluted by the industrial wastes and as the water is getting polluted human beings are subjected to water borne diseases like cholera, diarrhea and other skin diseases (Miller, 2007). Heat pollution-Due to the cause of global warming, deforestation and loss of fresh waters huge climatic change is witnessed and as result we are exposed to more heat which causes rise in the temperature and extinction of plant and animal life. Light pollution- It is another type of pollution, where excessive amount of electricity to create light results in loss of energy. Various kind of transportation The environment and transportation are interconnected to one another. Transportation can be defined as the movement of people and goods from one place to another. It can be done through land (road), water (ship) and air. It has helped the entire world stay connected to one another physically (Barnhart and Laporte, 2007). The road transportation has the largest number of commuters and covers the widest area as compared to other mode of transportation. It is easy to access with low price to avail, low maintenance cost and can be used both to transport people, animals and goods. Roads transport includes railway transportation (Gray and Graham, 2012). Water transportation or maritime transportation is mainly suitable for transportation of large amount of goods in the form of cargo from one place to other covering long distances. It is slightly expensive to avail and require high maintenance cost especially for better coasts and higher transportation costs for better shipment of goods (Baxter, 2015). Air transportation is another costly but effective mode of transport. Air ways are unlimited but it is set as per certain rules for one country. People seeking to have long distance transportation from one country to another during a short time prefer the air transportation. It requires a huge resource for air transportation and is becoming a growing sector in the economy (Cahill, 2010). Transportation of information through electronic networks is another type of transportation but it does not include the physical mode. It can be used in transferring unlimited data throughout the world in few seconds. Countries are using it in every way to transfer important information through satellites and electronic networks. There is a relationship between transport and environment. The environment is affected by the transportation system. Presently, the transportation system is facing a lot of problem. The transportation system is directly connected to the environment and is having several effects on the environment (Naumann, 2011). Some of the effects of transportation system on the environment are: Direct effect- The immediate effect of transportation system on the environment is often clearly observed. It explains the immediate impact of transport modes on the environment. Indirect effect- These effects of environment is not immediately understood. But it affects the environment in the long run. The impact of this kind of effects is bigger cause of environment pollution. Cumulative effect- This is the cumulating cause of both the direct and indirect effects of transportation activities on the environment which cannot be predicted from before (Needtoknow.nas.edu, 2015). With the rise in economic growth increases the level of transportation and in turn increases the number of vehicles which results to congestion of traffic and rise in the fuel costs. The large number of vehicles requires more fuel, and as a result a rise in pollution and a severe climatic change occurs. This creates global warming and loss of wildlife. The rise in the air pollution due to more fuel emission results in lung problem and health issues. The rise of pollution in the air also results to acid rain, rise of chlorofluorocarbons or CFC results in depletion of ozone layer and reduce the stratosphere concentration which increases the exposition of UV rays which led to skin cancer, immune system deficiency, cataracts in eye and damage of crops. The dangerous particles in the air results in the pollution of the hydrosphere from where the acid rain originates from the clouds accumulated in the hydrosphere (Needtoknow.nas.edu, 2015). Poisonous chemicals in the acid rains like nitrou s oxide when get mixed with the water bodies adversely affects the water life. This results in an ecological imbalance because the entire ecology is dependent on water to sustain their existence. Another pollution created by transportation which affects the environment is noise pollution. It is estimated that noise pollution occurs the most in roads. The noise is mainly produced from the honking of horns and the frictional sound of the engine. The quality of life in the urban society is hampered the most due to the noise pollution. While road transportation creates 70% noise, railway transport creates 10% noise and air transport creates 20% noise. Noise pollution increases tension, blood pressure and stress. All these pollutions created by transportation should be checked with effective measures and those measures should be exercised correctly. As discussed above the effect of different kinds of pollutions due to transportation system on the environment is catastrophic. Air pollution is caused from emission of harmful gases like carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons and CFC from the vehicles. Thus to solve air pollution several measures could be taken. Such as use of electricity to run a car. This is mainly done with the use of electronic batteries which is needed to be charged with electricity from time to time. This could substitute the petroleum run vehicle provided the problems of source of energy for these electrical cars are solved. People commuting in their private cars can switch to public transport; this will reduce the use of number of cars which in turn will reduce the overall fuel emission. Some other measures to reduce air pollution caused by transportation can be turning off your car during traffic signals, reducing the weight in the car and use of alternative mode of transport like cycling and walkin g for short distance (Orme, 2009). Water bodies are polluted when the dangerous chemical particles in the air gets mixed in the rivers and lakes. The rivers are getting acidic because of the acid rain which contaminates the water bodies and limits the growth of the water ecology. The harmful chemical wastes from the industries, use of pesticides in irrigation process which gets mixed in the rivers and dangerous chemical substance in the air which accumulates into the water causes water pollution. The effective management on the part of the industries can control the drainage of industrial wastes directly in the water and reducing the use of pesticides can reduce the water pollution. On the part of the transport system, innovative measures like use of hydrogen based cars in which cars are run through electricity which are generated from the use of hydrogen gas. The vehicles then run from the electricity which gives mechanical energy to the electric motor. The best part in use of hydrogen fuel cells is that the vehicles emit pure water which is way better than the emission of harmful gases like nitrogen oxides and carbon dioxide (Payne and Phillips, 2010). Noise produced from the vehicles affects the social environment largely. It is essential on the part of the vehicle owners and drivers to not to create any sound while in traffic and creating a disturbance to the fellow drivers. Also, the conditions of the cars, buses and trucks should be taken care of like, the engine should be maintained in good condition, the tires should be changed after a time and weight in vehicles should be controlled. So, to reduce noise pollution the main focus is on the road transport. Finally, for effective transport system there should be proper infrastructure and land availability for providing with more space and better transportation in the cities. This helps in faster transport, reducing wastage of fuels and safety for the commuters (Robinson, 2012). Conclusion Thus, the relationship between transportation and environment goes hand in hand. Transportation is connected with large number of environmental factors. Transportation system should be organized and controlled to reduce pollution and make betterment of the environment. So, we conclude here the sustainability of transportation with better use of resources, better economic efficiency and reduced pollution (Rodrigue, 2015). Reflective Log Environment and transportation system is interconnected. The rising transportation process with the growth of economy ha increased the level of pollution and is affecting the environment severely. There are various kind of pollution like air pollution, this is caused when there emission of harmful particles into the air, which results in affecting the earth atmosphere and result in global warming. Due to which there is rise in various chronic diseases. Another kind of pollution is water pollution which is happened from inefficient disposal process of industrial wastes and frequent use of pesticides which get mixed in the water bodies and pollutes them. This affects the water life and in turn affects the human because of unavailability of fresh water to sustain life. Noise pollution is caused by the vehicles and large factories. Land pollution from use of harmful fertilizers and chemicals which cause soil erosion, poor agricultural yield and deforestation and heat pollution from globa l warming which results in climatic changes and polar ice cap depletion are some other types of pollution. Therefore, to control this pollution several measures are taken (Sohn and Koellhoffer, 2006). But here we have discussed the effect of transportation system on the pollution and the solution to these problems. Like, instead of using petroleum oil or gas as fuel in vehicles, hydrogen cell fuels and electric energy can be used as their substitute. Though still it is long way to go to incorporate these as alternative fuel source but efforts are made to make it happen in future. While, the awareness on the part of the drivers and commuters can reduce the noise pollution made from honking horns and proper maintenance of vehicles controls the noise created from frictional sound of the engines and tires. Effective land taking and utilization ensures sustainable development in the transportation system. A sustainable transport facility can be known as the effective mode of movement of people, goods and data from one place to another. While the transportation of people and goods through roadways, ships and airways requires infrastructural and maintenance cost. The cost varies from one way to another, while the road ways and railways are most used and comparatively cheaper to maintain and the shipways and airways are used to transport people and goods from one country to another in large number is more costly to maintain. This huge transportation system requires huge amount of fuel to operate but it is also necessary to control its affect on the environment (Thiele, 2013). The environmental pollution misbalance the ecology and slowly becoming threat to the existence of human race. So, to sustain environmental development effective pollution control should be made. The study of effective pollution control of the transportation system on the environment has made us aware of the transportation system and how to maintain its sustainability in the global and local level s through bringing stability of the worlds environment in the long run by ensuring resources availability and to control the pollution in the cities through improving the transportation process (Colley, 2006). References Barnhart, C. and Laporte, G. (2007).Transportation. Amsterdam: North Holland. Baxter, E. (2015).10 Possible Transportation Pollution Solutions - HowStuffWorks. [online] HowStuffWorks. 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