Desalination plants provide a basic need to population, industry, and agriculture. This seems sometimes to evoke the impression that desalination plants are per se enviromentally compatible. Even in fundamental texts enviromental aspects are often missing. The objective of this paper is to analyse the imagineable enviromental impacts of desalination plants on coastal zone ecosystems. The authors present a general frame for enviromental impact studies derived from the experience gained from the work on a distinct desalination plant. Impacts start with the changed land-use, proceed to visual and acoustic disturbance and extend to the emissions to water and atmosphere and to the potential damages of the target enviroment. After a discussion of the enviromental, the chemical and the bilogical context, the emissions of desalination plants into the atmosphere and into the sea are examined. The potential hazards from these loads are discussed. At the side of the target enviroment, typical sub-ecosystems are selected and their sensitivity is assessed. Finally, sub-ecosystems are ranked according to sensitivity forming a scale ranging from a high-energy oceanic coast of a low sensitivity to a mangrove coast of very high sensitivity.
Elements of environmental impact studies on coastal desalination plants
Studie über die Elemente der Umweltbeeinflussung durch Entsalzungsanlagen an der Küste
1996
8 Seiten, 29 Quellen
Conference paper
English
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