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Three Legislations that Apply to the Landscaping Project
LANDSCAPING LEGISLATION
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Three Legislations that Apply to the Landscaping Project
The front yard issue is a historical phenomenon that is reported to have begun in New South Wales when a regulation was enacted in the year 1829. This legislation mandated the building of new homes to be at least 14 feet away from the streets in order to ensure there was adequate space in front of the houses for the gardens. By the 1900s, the notion of a front yard had increasingly been accepted in both the private homes as well as the public streets (Smith, 2001). Further, the Australians are reported to have adopted the ideals of the Americans of a front yard that has no fencing in order to create streets that looked like parks. This saw suburb wide efforts implemented in order to eliminate the fences hence encouraging god relationships among the neighbors and consequently discouraging crime and anti-social behavior.
Daceyville that is located in Sydney is reported to have been the very first suburb that systemically removed their fencing, and this was followed by the public housing in several other states. Some states even used cash prize competitions to encourage front yard beautifications. However, with the popularity of the front and back yard landscaping, several states were forced to come up with legislation that would govern the sectors. One of the legislation is the Environment Protection Act 1970 that apply to all the residential houses that have constructions going on. This includes single homes to the large apartments as well as the land preparation work that are carried out on the residential subdivisions. The legislation prescribes the activities carried out and their time in cases where they can actually be heard from a neighboring residence. The legislation ensures that the landscaping changes that are being made do not in any way interfere with the other neighborhood residence. The legislation includes the noise regulations in the preparation of land works within the residential subdivisions. Further, it includes noise regulations within the large scale suburban construction.
Legislation is the Environment Protection (Environment and Resource Efficiency Plans) Regulations 2007. This legislation came to force on January 2008 that was meant to regulate the industrial and commercial sites as well as other facilities that consume more 120 ML or/and 100 T J energy within a given financial. This was aimed at ensuring that a plan is formulated to help identify the actions that will be taken to ensure reduction in the use of water and energy, and waste generation. Each of the sites within Victoria that exceeds one threshold is expected to be registered with the EPA, come up with a plan, implement the plan within three years and produce a report annually (Geoffrey, 2013). This legislation is significant for this landscaping project since it requires use of large amount of water on the vegetation, swimming pool among others. Finally, the third legislation that will regulate this landscaping project is the Environment Protection (Fees) Regulations 2012. This legislation has been in operation since October 2012 and prescribes the fees that are administered by EP. The fees that are included in this legislation include license fees; environmental audit fees, works approval fees, as well as waste transport permit fees (Geoffrey, 2013). Indeed, this is a significant legislation given the in this project.
References
Geoffrey Bl. (2013). A History of Victoria, Port Melbourne. Cambridge University Press.
Smith, R. M. (2001). The Front Garden: New Approaches to Landscape Design . Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Three Kingdoms or Outlaws of Marsh
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Three Kingdoms or Outlaws of Marsh
Introduction
The novel, Three Kingdoms or Outlaws of Marsh, is a masterpiece; this makes it popular among many readers in both the western countries and the Asian countries/nations. The author of this book used suspense as a tool, feature while creating this masterpiece since once an individual commence reading the book it is difficult for him, or her to stop until he, or she is done with the entire book. This work is consisted of both critical and favorable review of the book. The analysis or the evaluationis deployed in many ways considering different factors portrayed in the book/ novel. These factors are as follows; the novels relation to the actual events taking place in the society, use of symbolic features, and the quality of the book`s translation to English language. Other factors put into consideration in the review include the setting, the books reception in the market, and analysis of the main characters depicted in the novel. This also gives a quick preview on the content of the novel.
Analysis/ review of the novel
British audiences or readers refer to this novel as `the water margin’, and it is one of the greatest masterpieces written by the Chinese. It is a folk- tale written in a novel form, this approach makes many readers grab a copy and read throughout the book. Since folk tales are only common in children, writing the book in form of a novel ensured that it received a larger audience base than folk tales, which are only common among children. The novel revolves around a group of bandits who joined hands to resisting and opposing the cruelty practiced by the GaoQiureign in the Chinese territory. This cruelty was being practiced during the reign of the song regime where the poor and the poorwere oppressed by the ruling dynasty. Women and girls are the most affected characters during such period since there is widespread violence against women throughout the novel(Ye et al, pg. 200).
Critics have argued that the writers of this book were not gender sensitive since women are oppressed. Women suffer in the hands of the ruling regime and even other men who abuse them both physically and sexually. The novel depicts women as helpless creatures who only live or exists at the mercy of men and the rulers of the Chinese kingdom during the ancient times. From these events, the authors only try to portray the happenings in the society where women and children are always the most endangered creatures during calamities such as wars, droughts, and floods. The harsh treatment is just the right picture of the misfortunate happenings, which befall women and girls in the society. This indicates that the authors are relevant and intent on the events, which takes place in society. They do not cover up by depicting that women are treated with respect in the society. Research also indicates that women whether in the ancient or modern societies are the most negatively affected creatures after children during any natural or fabricatedcatastrophe(Ye et al, pg. 209).
Any group or community, which has a governing body, must have or face opposition or resistance from people with differing views on the way of governance practiced by such governing body. This is the same situationas depicted in the novel, where the ruling dynasty, the Song Dynasty, faces opposition from the bandits. The bandits join hands to fight the cruelty of the ruling family and rescue people from oppression. In the modern societies, mostly in Asia and Africa, various governing bodies face opposition and resistance from militants and other civil society groups. A good example of such a situationwas witnessed in Egypt where the citizens revolted against the government citing corruption and other malicious vices practiced by the government. From these events, it is obvious that the authors of this book had experiential information on the happenings in the kingdoms and dynasties around the world. They had the capacity, which dictates that under oppression, human beings tend to stand up and fight back the oppression(Luo, pg. 100).
The translation of the novel to English language is,however, not pleasing to the western audience and other readers of American origin. This results from the fact that the novel is not entirely translated to English making it difficult for western readers to understand some sections. Some sections of the novel are written in Chinese language hence they require readers who understand the Chinese language in order to understand them.This may lead to western readers missing the meaning of vital areas in the novel. This calls for the translation of the entire novel into English language for all readers to understand all the contents without much difficulty or hustle(Luo, pg. 122).
The authors of this novel used a different setting in terms of moral background from that of the western literature. This novelwas mainly designed to be a television series script as it revolves around rebellion against injustice and oppression of the poor and the weak in the society. The reason for resistance also varies from one scene to another in this novel. For instance, sometimes people resist because of oppression, others to revenge or show loyalty while others just go along with the events taking place within the society. This is not the same case as in the American literature where authors keenly follow a certain way of writing books or novels. They followa regularbasis when writing books, making their workrevolve around one main theme, which is consistent throughout the piece. This shows that it is not compulsory for all authors to follow the moral background highlighted by the western culture. Any author has the freedom of adventure and research in order to come up with a creative and effectivepiece in the literature world. It also indicates that one can still make an impact in the literary field if he or she uses other moralbackground apart from the western culture. The writer or the authors of this novel wereopen-minded and ready to try out new ideas. This made them make a name in the literature field andbring out something new and unique. This made the novelreceive a massive reception throughout the whole world(Ye et al, pg. 221).
The authors of this novel also deploy the use of poetic features in the work to make their audienceor readers to enjoy reading and understand its contents. Some of the poetic features used in the novel include metaphors, symbolism, imagery, and suspense among other features. Suspense; the authors deploy the use of metaphors at the end of each chapter keeping readers glued to the piece as they yearn to discover the following events in the new chapters. Suspense is one of the vital tools used by poets and other writers to capture the attention of the audiences continuously, this makes this book not only a novel but also a poetic piece. The authors succeeded in capturing the attention of then readers or audience. They also used imagery to make the readers have a clear picture of the events taking place in the piece. For instance, when they talk about the oppression of the poor and the plights of women in the Chinese community one tries to picture such scenes in his or her mind. This helps the readers to have a better understanding of all the events taking place in the society depicted in this reading. They also deploy the use of symbolism, for instance, bandits symbolizeopposition factors in the society who are in a constant battle with the ruling party in order to restore the dignity of the citizens and stopoppression of the weak. They also use metaphors in a number of ways in this masterpiece, for instance, the title of the book is a metaphor since it shows that this book is about a society experiencing battles of three different opposing forces. These forces include the bandits, the ruling dynasty, and the oppressed women. From these arguments, it is evident that the authors were exemplary writers who had knowledge in poetry and literature world. They use poetic devices in a calculatedmanner making this work a masterpiece(Luo, pg. 99).
These writing techniques made the novelreceive a warm reception across the entire world after its release into the market.
Work cited
Ye, Lang, ZhenggangFei, and Tianyou Wang.China: Five Thousand Years of History and Civilization. Kowloon, Hong Kong: City University of Hong Kong Press, 2007. Print.
Luo, Guanzhong. Romance of the Three Kingdoms: 2. Boston: Tuttle Publ, 2004. Print.
Three Gorges Dam
The Three Gorges Dam
For a very long time even before China was founded in 1949, floods were common in this nation. In order to prevent the waters from raving havoc, a few dams were built. The main defense against the raging floods was dykes which were built along the main rivers in China. The government that came into power embarked on an ambitious project to control the raging flood waters all over the country. In a period of forty years about 80,000 reservoirs as well as dams were built. The dams as well as the reservoirs were both small and big, but due to poor construction of a majority of the projects, by 1921 about 3,200 of the dams had crumbled. The dams had to be upgraded using a lot of funds.
The construction of the Three Gorges Dam was a plan that had been initiated since the year 1940’s. The project was put on hold in the early years of 1990 (Hvistendahl, 2008). The main reason for stalling of the project was because of financial constraints, but not ecological reasons. Due to the rampant floods in China the government started the building of the Three Gorges Dam in the Yangtze River, despite the opposition from both the international community and the environmentalists in China. The dam which is the largest in the world covers about 24,500 hectare, and about 370 mile long. Various groups that were against the construction of the dam raised issues such as ethical issues, environmental issues, and societal issues (Hvistendahl, 2008).
Ethical issues that were raised included the displacement of about 1.5 up to 1.9 million people who had to move to pave way for the construction of the dam. More than 24,500 hectares of productive farm land had to submerge; furthermore about 1,300 historical sights had to be destroyed. The construction of the Dam had effects on all the people living on the lower side of the dam as the flow of the water had to be interfered with. The construction of the dam would affect the lively hood of about 20 million fishermen who depended on river Mekong. The international community as well as the environmentalists in China felt that the project was affecting very many people negatively.
Environment Effects
In terms of the effect of the Three Gorges Dam to the environment, the whole ecosystem that the dam covered was disrupted completely. Soil erosion and mudslides during the construction of the dam interfered with the ecosystem. The radical increase as well as decrease of water inside the dam causes erosion on the land near the dam. Landslides also increased on the areas surrounding the dam and as a result, many people have lost their lives.
The construction of the Three Gorges Dam has affected the biodiversity of the area. Both animal as well as human and plants have been affected; some animals and even plants face extinction as a result of water flooding in a number of habitats (Hvistendahl, 2008). Diversion of water in some areas has completely destroyed plant that cannot withstand swampy areas. The dam has caused critical fragmentation of the habitat on both the plants as well as animal habitats. Reproduction pattern of various species, both animal and plants, was immensely disrupted thus affecting the population of the species.
The dam has affected the flow of fresh water and, in turn, salt water is slowly sipping into the Yangtze River, thus affecting the fish population in the river. The amount of water flowing downstream has been redirected hence interfering with the entire system of the river (Hvistendahl, 2008). The surrounding area where the dam is built had to be cleared off the plants in the area as a result massive deforestation. Some trees that had been in existence for a long time had to be fell down. Animals that were living initially in the area had to move as a result of the destruction of the animals’ habitat.
The dam has been linked to catastrophes such as the possible acceleration of the earthquake, and rampant landslides as a result of spillway from the dam. The dam might cause flooding downstream due to down rage of the water from the dam (Hvistendahl, 2008).
Social Effects
The social effect of the Three Gorges Dams was the displacement of millions of Chinese people from their homes. Towns were submerged to create space; as result, many businesses and children were affected as firms were closed and schools had to be relocated respectively (Kite, 2011).
Due to the relocation, some children had to abandon their studies. Some of the people who were displaced were never compensated for all they loss; as a result, some are living in deplorable conditions. Other people displaced by the construction were compensated half of the amount agreed to by the government. Most of the people who were displaced were farmers who had minimal level of education; some of who returned to Yangtze after finding the life in the cities to be very hard. Another group of the displaced persons are living in tents while others are still living in the houses that were destroyed during the construction of the dam (Handwerk, 2006).
The dam has caused pollution of the water downstream. The pollution of the water was brought about by the dumping of some of the building materials into the water. The nearby cities also have been affected as a result of migrant workers moving into the cities; thus the city has been put under social pressure to sustain the growing population (Kite, 2011).
The relocation of the people affected some of them who habited the place for a number of years. Removing these people from a place they had called home for a long time affected them immensely. The relocation caused societal stress, as some people lost their neighbors, friends, and even relatives due to the relocation (Handwerk, 2006).
Another social effect of the dam was the forceful eviction of some of the people who were against being relocated to other places. There are some people who were forced to live in deploraable conditions than before as the forceful eviction left them poor. Some residents’ life’s was degraded as a result of the construction of the dam. Construction of more dams caused more social unrest, as more people are against the construction of more dams (Kite, 2011).
The construction of the dam led to death of many workers through accidents; as a result, many families of the dead were left without breadwinners. The death of the breadwinners caused an increase of the poverty level among the community.
The construction of the Three Gorges Dam had political connection. The Chongqing area where the dam is situates was promoted to a municipality as result of the construction of the Dam. The political class in the area was aware of the political gains that came with the construction of the dam. By being promoted to a municipality Chongqing area ultimately was meant to become independent. Apart from the reason of being promoted, the government had to rely on political goodwill for the project to succeed. Politics is very significant for any project to materialize, as the project had to be approved by politicians.
Benefits of the dam
Since about 2,300 years ago, China has recorded about 214 major floods. At an average that is about one major flood in about 10 years. In the last one hundred years, China has had five major floods which has caused millions of life’s, destroyed millions of hectares of fertile farmland, and thousands of home. In the year 1998, floods caused havoc leading to loss of lives’. The gorges area alone had about 4,000 dead and about 14 million people left homeless. The construction of the dam in the Yangtze, managed to protect about 1.5 million hectares of land, and about 15 million people. The dam managed to control the flood waters during the rainy season. During the rainy season the dam stores water that can be used to support the daily needs of the people (Handwerk, 2006).
The gorges Dam has been used to produce electricity enough to supply 3% of China’s electricity needs. In doing so, the dam is very vital in the economy of china a most industries depend on electric power, thus the economy is boosted as industries will perform to the maximum. The dam has enabled trade in the Yangtze, and has also enabled big ship to venture deep into the Yangtze inland (Hvistendahl, 2008).
Effects on Families
Some of the families that were relocated have not been able to live as comfortably as they were living before. However, the families that were compensated managed to reorganize their lives, but there are some that still live in abject poverty, and having tents for shelter.
Reference
Handwerk, Brian. 2006. “China’s Three Gorges Dam, by the Numbers.” National Geographic News. Accessed October 3, 2011: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/06/060609-gorges-dam.html
Hvistendahl, Mara. 2008. “China’s Three Gorges Dam: An Environmental Catastrophe?” Scientific American. Accessed October 3, 2011:http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=chinas-three-gorges-dam-disaster
Kite, L. P. (2011). Building the Three Gorges Dam. New York: Rain tree.