VCE Outdoor & Environmental Studies Resources

Unit One: Motivations for outdoor experience
Area of Study One: Understanding outdoor experiences

Uunderstanding related to minimal impact outdoor travel and living

Activity: Surveying environmental impacts

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Your name: ______________________
Name of venue: __________________________

Task: Complete this environmental impact survey of a remote venue you have visited (e.g. national park, campsite, beach) with your class, then answer the questions below.

	impact		observed ( yes/no)	description
1.	litter	packaging (e.g. wrappers)
		foodscraps/spills
		broken glass
		toilet paper
		other litter
	track erosion
	soil compaction (esp. around campsites)
	trampling/breaking vegetation
	fire scars
	air pollution (e.g burning plastic)
	water pollution	faecal contamination
		soap
		dish scraps
		muddying of water
		other
	noise pollution (esp. @ night)
	graffiti (esp. on rock surfaces)
	other (specify)

Questions

1. Where would you place this venue on a continuum below between pristine & very damaged?

¬ pristine	very damaged ®

2. What, if any, are the worst types of human impact?

________________________________________________________________________


3. Which individuals/groups appear to be most responsible for these impacts)

________________________________________________________________________


4. How would you rate your class out of 10 in terms of the way it minimised its impact? (Explain.)

__ /10 ___________________________________________________________________


5. What different strategies could land managers adopt to further minimise impact?

________________________________________________________________________

6. What impacts did you see that could be described purely as "visual impacts" (i.e. eyesores with little or no other impact [e.g. graffiti]).

________________________________________________________________________

 

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