CLC – The Impact of Human Influence on Environmental Health
This is a Collaborative Learning Community (CLC) assignment.
Research environmental health issues in a developing country related to air, water, and
land. Choose one environmental health issue from your research to investigate and
evaluate the impact of human influence on the environment in the area. Present your
findings in a 10-15 slide PowerPoint presentation. Utilize properly cited illustrations,
tables, and graphs, as needed. Include comprehensive speaker notes for each slide.
Describe the developing country and the overall challenges compounding environmental
health issues and public health.
Evaluate how population growth, urbanization, and/or industrialization have negatively
affected the quality of air, land, or water and the types of pollution emissions they have
caused.
Choose a specific environmental health consequence related to air, water, or land.
Provide an overview of the environmental health issue, including potential causes and
the effect from the environment exposure (air, land, water). Discuss the correlation
between ensuing pollution and the impact on population health. Identify surveillance
reports and summarize the burden of disease, health inequity, and morbidity and
mortality rates resulting from the environmental exposure.
Explain the impact this environmental issue has on animal and ecosystem health.
Describe how the environmental health issue and public health are currently being
addressed.
Discuss the future consequences, both local and global, if environmental policy and
strategic planning are not supported or implemented to address the cause of the
pollutants and the environmental health issues.
You are required to cite three to five sources to complete this assignment. Sources must
be published within the last 5 years and appropriate for the assignment criteria and
public health content.
Impact of Urbanization, Industrialization, and Agricultural Practices on Land and Water
Quality
Human Expansion, from a global perspective, dictates the level of industrial scales
and compels agriculture to dominate nearly all land management systems. Urbanization
continues to be an alternative for many people seeking employment in different industries
located in urban centers. Consequently, the continued arrival and eventual settlement of
people in urban centers result in extensive pollution of the land and water bodies. The process
of urbanization leads to an increase in both land and surface water pollution sources because
of an exponential rise in population around urban centers. Additionally, the uncontrolled
URBANIZATION, INDUSTRIALIZATION AND AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES 2
disposal of effluents bearing COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand) and Biological Oxygen
Demand (BOD) eventually enter water bodies (Hu et al., 2013).
Industrialization depends on mining and agriculture for essential raw materials.
Consequently, the process of manufacturing leads to the release of heavy metals both on land
and in water, leading to heavy pollution. The mining processes lead to environmental
degradation, too (Hu et al., 2013).
Agricultural practices are the result of the need to increase food production to meet
the growing feeding demands of an ever-increasing population both in rural and urban
centers. Accordingly, extensive land degradation through deforestation is the alternative
during agricultural practices (Baker, 2006). Furthermore, the agricultural sector depends on
the use of herbicides and pesticides, which often lead to both land water pollution.
Alternative developments to improve human and environmental health include proper
town planning to cater for destructive practices during urbanization, improved wastes, and
effluent treatment and disposal, and the manufacture of environmentally friendly pesticides
and herbicides for use in agriculture. The World Health Organization (WHO) has been
instrumental in the development of necessary infrastructure for the improvement of both
human and environmental health (The World Health Organization, 2016). For instance,
effluents from industries must meet specific standards before their release into the
environment. Additionally, education of the masses regarding the importance of the natural
environment’s health is a global campaign.
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References
Baker, A. (2006). Land use and water quality. Encyclopedia of hydrological sciences.
Hu, Y., Liu, X., Bai, J., Shih, K., Zeng, E. Y., & Cheng, H. (2013). Assessing heavy metal
pollution in the surface soils of a region that had undergone three decades of intense
industrialization and urbanization. Environmental Science and Pollution
Research, 20(9), 6150-6159.
World Health Organization. (2016). World health statistics 2016: monitoring health for
SDGs sustainable development goals. World Health Organization.