Environmental Impact
Introduction
Rarely do people consider the negative impact that occurs when the level of attendance at an event is greater than the environment’s ability to cope with. People’s direct interaction during an outdoor activity; might lead to many pollutions if it is misled and harmful to the environment. Given that festivals at any outdoor event contain thousands of people; the potential of a negative impact by each and every person will be extremely high. Some of the event types that might occur are; sports events, music festivals, food festival, and much more. This report will be covering the environmental concerns when it comes to air pollution, water pollution, and noise pollution that are caused by an event happening at the JBR throughout the year.
Impact and evidence
Air pollution
The difficulties of the environmental impact during events and the ways of assessing it is quite complex and often occurs over an extended period of time. Due to the fact that Dubai usually runs many events at the JBR in a short period of time; proves that the impacts will happen rapidly. Those issues, in particular, will lead to many types of pollutions. Starting off with, air pollution; where there is an increase in the harmful chemicals to the atmosphere, which contains sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide that causes acid rain that influence air quality, human health, and the overall climate.
Additionally, JBR has held many fireworks during events for entertainment purposes. Such as the New Years and Eid Celebration. That causes an extensive amount of air pollution in a short period of time; which ends up leaving metal particles, dangerous toxins, and smoke in the air for more than one day. Other events that have used fire-related toxins during their events in JBR were Joerg Mitte and Red Bull X-Fighters. Those toxins do not decompose or disintegrate from the air; in fact, they stay around the environment and poison anything that comes in contact with it.
In a survey that was gathered by the residents of UAE who occasionally attend events at JBR; it was clarified that transportation methods also have a huge impact on the environment as well. Many residents choose the method of cars to travel from their houses to JBR. Due to the fact, gasoline evaporate into the air often; and the substances that are produced when the gasoline burns are carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and unburned hydrocarbons which potentially causes lung cancer.
Water pollution
The second type of environmental impact that will occur in JBR is water pollution. During the same survey that was mentioned above; residents were asked about their wastage at an event and how they are dealt with. The survey has shown that many adults do not use garbage or recycling bins at events. Which states that there is many dumping into the beach at JBR. As shown in figure 8.
The dumping of litters, chemical waste, plastic, or food waste in the water will lead to huge problems when those substances build up on the beach. If this habit continues and increases, it may lead to problems for animals and humans.
Furthermore, JBR contains residencies and contractions sites around the beach area which use harmful chemicals that runoff with the water. Such as, oil, degreasers, paint, and other substance that causes death to humans and animals. A huge example to that would be the renovations of the Walk JBR itself in 2014 by Dubai Properties Group. That included an addition of shaded areas to food and beverages, retail outlets on the ground level of The Walk, many restaurants, and new hotels.
Noise pollution
The events at JBR are usually filled with so much fun and excitements to the guests who are attending. However, it may have an effect on the resident’s side. Due to the fact that JBR contains apartments, hotels, and resorts; the comfort for those people is required. Noises coming from JBR will cause high-stress level, hypertension, tinnitus, hearing loss, and sleep disturbance. As mentioned in the air pollution; New Years, Eid festivals, Joerg Mitte, and Red Bull X-Fighters are great examples of noise pollution.
An article that was published in 2016 by TheNational.ae has stated that a fifth of the patients in Dubai Healthcare City suffer from a sleep disorder, insomnia, and sleep deprivation. It was shown that UAE residence struggles to stay asleep, in which they are able to fall asleep, but they continuously wake up throughout the night. This is all due to the fact that the city life is too noisy for the residents, especially the downtown area where JBR, Dubai Marina, or Burj Khalifa are located. In fact, Dr. Sihweil has even stated in the news report that stress and anxiety to those people can only be solved if they move into quieter neighborhoods. Some people were even lead into taking sleeping pills thinking there is something wrong with their bodies not the community around them.
The following graph was provided by the same news report that describes the human ears and what it is capable of hearing to an extensive amount of noise.
Conclusion & Recommendations
To conclude with; there have been many types of research done throughout the years which have helped the pollutions occurring at JBR. However, there could be an addition to them which will be able to help people’s footprints into better causes for the environment.
Such as:
- Using public transportation to travel from and into the events to help improve the air pollution
- Understanding and getting more knowledge on the concept of reducing, reuse, and recycling to help the water and air pollution.
- Event management companies need to also consider and respect the residents in the JBR area and around that area as well. They can minimize the value of the music being played at events. Along with turning off the music during the prayer times; since many events do not respect that fact as much.
- RTA (The Road and Transport Authority) need to arrange policemen to assist the street for an easier and quieter way for people to enter and exit the events without noises.
- The overall recommendation for the above issues is Knowledge; where people in UAE need to be more educated in schools or their workplace on how to deal with those pollutions in a better way for the environment. Event management companies should also provide rules and regulations for every person who have signed up for the event through an email with their confirmation of their tickets.
