ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING 
ASSIGNMENT1 

THE EFFECT OF HUMAN INTERACTION ON ENVIRONMENT.

SUBMITED BY
Sandra Rose  
Arathi‐N 
Jiphin R Isaiah 
 THE EFFECT OF HUMAN INTERACTION ON ENVIRONMENT.

Humans have had a profoundly adverse impact on the environment. Failure to

conduct activities like manufacturing, transportation, large-scale fishing, agriculture
and waste disposal in moderation impacts the land, air and water. While the full
range of long-term consequences of human intervention on the environment is
uncertain, some consequences like climate change are already apparent. There are
many examples of human failure to use land resources sustainably.

Case study
MALDIVES
The Maldives are a collection of islands on the
Indian Ocean, spread over 90,000km² and
located South West of India. Around about 88 of
these islands are resort islands and tourists come
from all around the world to explore the beautiful
waters around these islands around which most
of their activities are largely based.
Maldives host more tourists each year than the
nation’s total population. Tourism is undoubtably
central to the country’s wealth; it accounts directly Fig:Maldives‐ seashore
for 39.6% of the Maldives total GDP. In 2004 the
Maldives experienced a tsunami which cut their tourist visitation the following year
by nearly half, and their GDP fell by 4.6%.
There are a range of cultural and natural activities for tourists visiting the Maldives.
 Cruises
 Night Diving
 Seaplane Tours
 Local Music and Folk Performances
 Snorkeling in Lagoons
 Visiting Coral Reefs
 Arts and Crafts
People may use the Maldives to get away from their city lives and to enjoy some
alone time or some time to unwind. Because the Maldives are so isolated from any
big forms of civilization, people are able to feel that they are having some time to
reflect on their busy lifestyles.
Tourism can negatively impact the environment of the Maldives because
resort islands have changed many aspects of the Maldives. Also tourist
activities such as snorkeling, diving and overfishing are slowly deteriorating
eco systems
IMPACTS ON THE ENVIRONMENT

Tourism in the Maldives has many, serious negative effects on the environment.
 For the atolls to be available for resort use they have to be easy and safe access
and berthing for boats coming into the resort. Therefore, each coral reef has to
be blasted to allow a channel through to the lagoon. The inner lagoon is then
dredged to allow for the draught of the tourist boats. This causes coral to die as
the excess sediment is deposited on top of it, killing it. The disruption of the sea
bed causes a decline in water quality
and visibility effecting coral health as
well. This also causes a disruption in
the marine ecosystems and currents
which can be very harmful.

 Because islands can only have 20%

built up to preserve the island resort
owners build out into the lagoon. The
jetties that service the resort rooms
are generally made of solid rock and
are very detrimental to the health of
the island and surrounding lagoon.
Before the jetties were built the
natural currents circled the island
circulating the sand around the Fig:CO2 EMISSIONS IN MALDIVES 
island evenly. However these solid
jetties are not allowing that to
happen so sand is piling up along the
edge of the jetty and not making it
around to the other side of the island.
This is causing erosion on the
other side of the island as the
waves that were normally
breaking on the sand are now
breaking straight onto the island
itself. It has also affected the
habitats of marine and animal life
around the island, as their homes
have been destroyed by the
unnatural moving of the sand. Fig:The effects of coral blasting can be clearly seen in the above 
photo where a channel has been formed to allow boats access 
to the jetties. 
 The tourism in the Maldives is based
on the sea and many boats go out into the reef each day for tourist activities.
Since the sea bed is made of coral reef each time they drop anchor they are
latching onto coral and breaking it off, killing it. Coral is a very fragile plant and
 takes years to grow. Coral grows
between only 5mm to 20cm a year. A
study found that a cruise ship
anchoring in a coral reef for one day
destroys an area half the size of a
football field completely destroyed
and half that size again died later.
Coral recovery was estimated to
take 50 years.

 Tree roots provide an important Fig:Erosion caused by the disruption of natural currents and 

anchor for any land area as the roots patterns due to resort jetties. 
spread through large areas of soil
and hold it together, stopping it
getting eroded, washed or blown
away. This is especially important in
the Maldives where the islands are
made of fine particles of sand, coral
and sediment and if very vulnerable.
So when coastal vegetation is
removed for tourist facilities it
severely damages the natural
environment.
 Blasting has led to the destruction of
coral reefs. This affects the water Fig:The effects of tourism on coral reefs. 
currents and changes the quality of
the water so that the inhabitants of the reefs may be threatened. Also, the
reefs are being damaged by tourist divers who may trample them accidentally.
The reefs are very popular for tourists so if the reefs are destroyed in the future,
then it would significantly damage tourism in the Maldives.
 The enclave resorts on the Maldives have cause  d problems for surrounding
coral reefs
 There has been a decrease in fish numbers and species because of the tourists
swimming too close and the disposal of sewage from tourist resorts
 Also, during construction of resorts, trees are removed and this causes erosion
of the island because the trees were what held the sediment in place. Erosion
has also occurred because of rock filled jetties which stops the movement of
sand around the islands which leaves some places with no sand. Habitats have
already been destroyed because of construction work of resorts.

 Rubbish and contamination by the mass number of tourists has led to many
problems. For example, contamination of lagoons may occur due to sewage
and liquid waste seeping through and into the lagoon. Algae and sea
 grasses which start to grow can make the sea beds look dirty and make tourists
feel that the Maldives are losing their attraction as being seen as ‘the paradise
destination.’ Also, Thilafushi (also known as Rubbish Island) receives hundreds
of tones of rubbish from other islands in the Maldives daily. It is growing one
square metre a day with rubbish but sixteen years ago it was an unspoilt coral
reef. The dangers with this is that this island is only 1 metre about sea level and
with rising sea levels, toxic chemicals like mercury and cadmium can be
leached into the sea and harm the marine life of the area.
 Because of the large amount of human contact with the land sewage and other
liquid waste is in abundance and is disposed on the island. They then seep into
the lagoon which then leads to contamination of the lagoon causing death of
coral and increase the amount
of sea grasses and algae which
are not necessarily wanted.
 Rubbish is the most serious
negative effect on the
environment in the Maldives.
With about 70,000 tourists
visiting the Maldives each year
a significant amount of rubbish
is produced. In the 90’s the
Maldivian authorities turned an
atoll named Thilafushi into a Fig: Thilafushi ‐ the Maldives rubbish island 
rubbish dump (rubbish island)
because of the increasing amount of rubbish from tourists that they couldn’t cope
with. Thilafushi used to be seven kilometers by 200 meters but is now growing
by a square meter every day. Rubbish is shipped daily from the resort islands.
In the beginning pits were dug but the volumes of rubbish became too big to
cover up with sand, so it is now in piles covering the island. The lagoon
surrounding the island will also eventually be filled with rubbish. The rubbish on
the island also contains many deadly chemicals such as the toxic heavy metals
mercury, lead, cadmium and also asbestos. Because of global warming the
islands in the Maldives are at serious risk of the rising sea levels because they
are only 1m above sea level. This will be a major health and environmental risk
as the toxic chemicals are already capable, and are, leeching in to the sea and
this will be very harmful to the ecology surrounding the island. This will also affect
human health because of the number of Maldivian locals who rely on the ocean
for their food supply and this will be contaminated.

How Environmental Impacts Are Minimised.

 Tourism groups are trying to promote eco-tourism to sustain the environmental
attractions of the Maldives. The coral reefs are a big part of what the tourism
companies want to protect because it is one of the biggest attractions of the
Maldives.
 Their plan for minimizing environmental impacts while still giving a unique tourist
opportunity is described by this “All tourism has an impact on local communities,
wildlife and habitats of the host country. To maximise the positive effects of
Naturetrek tours, where possible we take small groups, use locally owned
accommodation and provide employment for local people. We also commit to
long-term plans, which help local communities protect their environment.”
 The Maldives already have very big plans for the future in term of sustainability
as they plan to be carbon neutral by 2020. The president Mohamed Nasheed
has said “Creating a carbon neutral economy helps combat climate change,
enhances our energy security and safeguards our future development and
prosperity. If the Maldives becomes carbon neutral, we believe other countries
will want to do the same.” This helps sustain many aspects of the attraction of
the Maldives which will help sustain its tourism based economy and many
environmentally friendly people may want to visit the Maldives for a holiday
because the Maldives being carbon neutral will sound very attractive.