Are you someone who is in need of an environmental survey? Perhaps you are building a new development in a certain section of town and the Planning Department requires a survey, or maybe you are looking to expand on your own land, but want to make sure you are doing so in the most environmentally friendly way. No matter what the reasoning is, there are a few things to know before embarking on that request. Below are some of those key pieces of knowledge:
1. Perks of Requesting an Aerial Survey – Using an aerial survey as a part of your environmental impact study is a great tool, especially if you have quite a bit of land. Aerial surveys use photos that are taken while flying at 10,000 feet or more over the ground. When the photos are processed, each photo typically covers an area of approximately two square miles. The level of detail on the ground will not be clear, of course, but the big picture view that an aerial survey provides can really be beneficial when you are looking to build on your land but do not know exactly what space you have available.
2. Water Quality Monitoring – Another crucial part of an environmental survey is water quality monitoring. Today, reports show that nearly half (45%) of streams and lakes in the United States are polluted. This number might be shocking, but when you consider that Americans use over 2 billion pounds of pesticides annually, it might make more sense. These pesticides and other chemicals eventually wash into rivers, lakes, streams, and more all across the country. Making sure that water quality reports are a part of your environmental survey is a great way to ensure you are learning as much about your land as possible.
3. Environmental Consulting – Aerial surveys and water quality monitoring are each a part of the environmental reports that you might request, but if you are just getting started in that journey then it might be best to reach out to an environmental consulting company to determine where to start. It will be a consulting firm like this that can help you define exactly what is needed for the project you are facing whether that is groundwater modeling, an aerial survey, or a full geotechnical investigation. Asking the experts is always a good first step.
Requesting an environmental survey is something that thousands of Americans do on a daily basis. Because the nature of these surveys is so far reaching, it is unlikely that any two of them are exactly the same. That is just one more reason that reaching out to an environmental consulting firm is a great place to start. Present your project goals to a team of experts and hear what they have to say. The final decision will ultimately be yours.
