Development Pressure and Environmental Sustainability: Mutually Exclusive?

As if on cue, the recent earthquake off the southwest coast of Taiwan triggered off a tsunami warning that may have been reminiscent of the 2004 Boxer Day tsunami rampage on its second anniversary. Fortunately it was not to be. Different setting (Indian Ocean versus Pacific Ocean), different consequences (human carnage versus frayed nerves).

But the earthquake did inflict untold damages to the fiber optic connectivity in that part of the world, disrupting both telecommunication and Internet traffic.

So while the 2004 December Tsunami was stymied by the absence of tele-communication, and hence, forewarning, this time around an earthquake of much smaller scale has exposed the vulnerability of the global tele-communication system, despite the many built-in system redundancy.

Earlier on, another natural calamity has also laid bare the inadequacy of human ingenuity, or rather, the primacy of human-centered development, in coping with Nature’s wrath. I’m referring to the unprecedented flood that wreaked havoc in the southern States of Peninsular Malaysia. It was much easier to explain away the occurrence as a meteorological aberration whereby the convergence of the air streams leading to the deluge occurred much further to the south compared to previous years when the northern States were blanketed, and where the people on the ground there have had a history of dealing with the surplus of runoff, and hence, are imbued with a kind of crisis mentality, which is perhaps absent from the psyche of their more southerly brethren, at the advent of the Northeast Monsoon.

From news coverage, it became patently clear that those affected, and those charged with the emergency management, were ill-prepared to handle the fast rising flood water, and the human misery that has come to characterize the 2005 Katrina devastation once again unfolded before our very eyes. At the same time, heroic acts of saving human lives, and marshalling aid to reach the victims, were reported.

Underneath this “act of God”, to which those responsible for on-the-ground disaster preparedness and assistance are wont to ascribe the "blame", lies perhaps the crux of the matter: development at the expense of environmental sustainability.

All natural systems have a carrying capacity to cope with the elements, perhaps the simplest of which is one depicted by the Water Cycle, or technically, the Hydrological Cycle (image courtesy of USGS). Water vapor in the sky forms clouds, which then falls to the ground as rain at some point. The overland flow that results is termed the runoff, which collects in drains and streams that flow by gravity to lower elevations. Streams meet to form rivers that debauch into the ocean. Some of the rain percolates into the ground where it is not paved, and collects in aquifers as underground storage, while other collects in inland lakes and reservoirs. Water then returns to the atmosphere through direct evaporation from the water surface and indirectly by transpiration via leaves in plants through uptake from the soil. And the cycle repeats.

Now, any bare earth surface that is built up, be it the footprint of a building, paved surface for roads, and hard-standing for car parks and walkways, reduced ground infiltration of falling rain that translates into enhanced surface runoff. If this increased water discharge overwhelms the flow capacity of the drainage infrastructure such as surface drains, underground conduits, and storage reservoirs, then flood ensues, causing property damage and at its extreme, loss of life.

As an economic imperative simply because funds are finite, the drainage infrastructure is never designed to cater for the largest possible rainfall event and the ensuing flow discharge based on the projected land use of a watershed, say, for the next 30 years. So if the development of the watershed, i.e., conversion of natural green area into built-up areas that are impervious to flow, outstrips the projected land use change, then one can well imagine that the drains will overflow and flood the adjacent build-up areas.

So, in a nutshell, this is the continuing tussle between development ostensibly to serve the need of humankind, and maintaining the environment in a condition that is as naturally pristine as possible. And the balance will tip depending on the degree to which the powers that be embrace environmental sustainability in their stewardship of natural resources of which land space is by far the most pivotal.

Concepts and innovations such as low-density development, environment-friendly approaches, and bio-engineering measures have been introduced to soften the development impacts. However, as past events are a testimony, there continues to be a mismatch, a chasm really if you will, between the development lobby and the environment, which is treated almost as an after-thought.

Let’s hope this will change, lest the human misery continue to hog the headlines, in ever increasing frequency.