Benefits and Risks Associated with Landscapes | US EPA (2024)

FAQs

What are the risks of landscaping? ›

Injuries result from saw operation, lifting, slips and trips, power equipment noise. Primary hazards include: Cuts and amputations. Hearing loss.

Major goals and benefits of sustainable landscaping include water conservation, improving soil health, reducing maintenance labor and organic waste generation, carbon sequestration, and creating habitat through appropriate plant selection.

Landscapes Are Good for the Air and Water

So, planting grass and trees is one simple way that all of us can help improve the environment! Another interesting fact supporting landscapes with trees is that one tree can also supply enough oxygen for four people every day.

Our gardens provide little habitat value, and the result is that many organisms don't have a place to live. In addition, pesticides kill many invertebrates, including beneficial ones such as pollinators and predators, and can disrupt food chains by leaving predatory consumers with little to eat.

Definition. A risk landscape. i.e. an assessment of risks exposure of assets, will be based on a threat landscape (i.e. assume some threats), while taking into account impact and providing mitigation controls for the assumed threats.

Landscape hazards such as earthquakes, wildfires, hurricanes, tornados, flooding, volcanoes, radon, air pollution, sinkholes, avalanche, landslides, and blizzards create a complex set of destructive forces that form disturbances obliterating life and structures.

Drastic landscaping changes are not always environmentally friendly. Cutting down trees or using chemicals to kill weeds is potentially harmful to the wildlife in the area. Consider landscaping around the natural elements and using a plant-based weed killer.

Agriculture shapes and changes our environment. Mining for things like coal, iron ore, and gold can have an impact on the landscape too. Perhaps one of the biggest impacts to landscapes and landforms is through human-induced climate change.

vulnerability factors – such as fragmentation, geographical restriction and reliance on a few key species; and • threats – such as extreme climate events, fires, pests and diseases, sea-level rise and overexploitation by people.

How does landscape affect people's lives? ›

In simple words, your well-maintained landscapes can positively influence your psychological, cognitive, environmental, physical, and spiritual well-being.

Deforestation, urban development, agriculture, and other human activities have substantially altered the Earth's landscape. Such disturbance of the land affects important ecosystem processes and services, which can have wide–ranging and long–term consequences (Table 2).

Hence, it's considered a high-risk industry, with the US National Library of Medicine, the world's largest library of health information, finding a high proportion of injuries frequently reported among landscape workers.

Along with the benefits of hiring a landscaper, there are also some cons to having a professional take care of the area. It can be quite costly when you have a landscaper create the yard that you have always dreamed of. It takes a lot of time and a lot of effort to plant, fertilize, and design a nice space.

Lack of business knowledge

The seasonality of the lawn care business makes budgeting particularly important. With inadequate financial management experience, small-business owners may struggle with pricing their services and understanding the nuance of the green industry's profit margins.