Objectives

Objectives: The main objective of this study is to:

• Deal with the impacts of transportation on the environment. For lying the basis of the study, the case related to the Conestoga College has been considered.
• The study aims to cover research regarding the impacts and how the environmental impacts can be rectified which the college ha on the environment due to the use of transportation facilities used by the students of the college.

Purpose and Scope: The study has a huge amount of underlying scope. The plight and the consequences of increased transportation mediums and their impacts on the environment is lying at an alarming state. The ineffective use of transport had led to huge problems and thus here lies a huge scope or studying and understanding these concerns in taking ways to solve them out. This can be said to be the inherent purpose of the study also.

Background information: The Conestoga College is located in 299 Doon Valley Drive, Kitchener, Ontario, N2G 4M4. The various impacts that are laid upon by the transportation facilities and the mediums used by the students and their impacts on the environment is a matter of concern here. Different students use individual transport facilities and each day, it is seen that thousands of vehicles are parked in the parking lots of the Campus. There is also hge air pollution in form of smog that can be seen in and around the campus of the college.

Rationale: Environmental pollution has increased to a large extent and it has been seen that the se of transportation accounts to maximum of pollution caused in the different places. Among these the names of offices, schools colleges and other public places comes as most of the people react there by making use of personal vehicles (Airqualityontario, 2018). This increases the pollution. The study shall consider facts related to this.

Methodology: The use of quantitative data has been made use in here. For analysing data, tools such as Excel, SPSS and other things shall be made use of here. The data here shall be collected by making use of various mechanisms such as the primary sources of data and the secondary sources of data (Govindan, Rajendran, Sarkis, & Murugesan, 2015). The primary sources of data shall be collected by conducting surveys with the students and the various people associated with the transport department. Regarding the secondary data, it shall be collected from various of the books, newspapers, journals and other kind of articles and the other mediums which deal with environmental pollution related to transportation. A total of 50 individuals including students and people from transport department shall be considered in the surveys.

Survey:

Q1. What kind of vehicles is used by the students to reach the College and go back to home?

Options	Total individuals	Percentage of the students
a. Personal cars	15	30
b. Personal bikes and  scooters	20	40
c. Cycles and by walking to  the College	5	10
d. Public transport	10	20
Total	50	50

Purpose and Scope

Analysis: It can be seen here that maximum of the students make the use of personal bikes and scooters. The students make the use of the personal vehicles such as cars that is a less that the total number of individuals using two wheel motor vehicles. The maximum portion that is 35 people are using personal vehicles out of 50 people. While only 5 people are using either bicycles or just walking the way to the College. Around only 10 people, that is 20% is using public transport.

Q2. Does the college make proper arrangement to check whether the students using personal vehicles have proper pollution clearance papers and other things?

Options	Total Individuals	% of Individuals
a. Yes the College checks all the pollution related papers	15	30
b. No, the college does not do it.	25	50
c. Does not know	10	20
Total	50	50

Analysis: The assessment here suggests that 15 people suggests that the college checks all the parts of the students related to clearance on their pollutions and other things. Why maximum portion of the respondents suggests that the college does not take any kind of action to make sure and check whether the students maintain their vehicles and keep them pollution free. Thus, it can be understood that most of the pollution is created from those ill maintained vehicles and personal modes of transport used by the students and the college is not at all aware or concerned about it. While some portion suggests that they do not know anything about this.

Q3.Do you think that the personal vehicles are solely responsible for creating the kind of pollution that is the College authorities are aware of?

Options	Total Individuals	% of Individuals
Yes	25	50
No	15	30
Does not know	10	20
Total	50	50

Analysis: Around 50% of the respondents are of the opinion that the personal vehicles that are used by the students to connect their place of study is the main reason for the creation of the huge amount of pollution. Around only 3% does not agree to the fact and another 20% are not aware of the fact. Ths it can be said that the personal vehicle the sole reason for the environmental pollution.

Q4.What kind of transport medium do you think can helps in reducing the kinds of pollution and bringing in more opportunities for environmental concern?

Options	Total Individuals	% of Individuals
Cycles	10	20
Public transport	15	30
Communal transport such as buses arranged by the College authorities	25	50
Total	50	50

Analysis: 50% of the respondents are suggesting that thee college should arrange for some kin alternative and communal transport medium that can helps in bringing down the effects of pollution. While around 3% of the respondents suggest that the students should make use of public transport in order to bring down the effects of the pollution. While a lesser portion are not aware of the fact or were not inerted to lay down their judgement.

Background information

Transportation and vehicles use can be termed to be one of the foremost causes for the creation of huge amount of pollution. While primarily vehicular pollution affects the atmosphere, it can however, indirectly pollute water and soil as well (Jerrett et al. 2015). The toxic gases that are released by the automobiles are often acid anhydrides like carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide which combine with water to form their corresponding acids like carbonic acid, nitric acid and sulphuric acid respectively. Therefore, it can be understood that these gases can combine with rainwater and contribute towards acid rain (Srinivasan, O’fallon & Dearry, 2013). Acid rain, when it falls on water bodies or soil alter their natural composition and ecosystem. Subsequently it causes destruction of habitat. Apart from the gases mentioned above the emissions of automobiles also contain harmful elements like lead and mercury. Not only are these elements harmful for the environment, they are immensely poisonous for the human body. By using vehicles we are also harming ourselves (Mueller et al. 2015). Depending upon the kind of pollution effects can vary from minor illnesses to even death. Most cases related to automobile pollution directly relate to the respiratory or cardiovascular systems. Lead for example, affects health in an acute manner (Davison, Werde & Lawson, 2014). It impairs the nervous system and also decreases the rate of haemoglobin production in the body. In the environment bioaccumulation occurs where these chemicals enter the bodies of certain organisms and thus they are transmitted into the entire food chain (Spellerberg, 2016).

Ambient air monitoring station have been installed in 38 network of Ontario ministry which have noticed that real time air pollution data is quite extensive in terms of pollution presented by the transport generally utilised by student to go to their respective institution for studies. Objective of the people may not remain to be polluting the environment but situations are such that has created enough alarming situation to air quality health index (AQHI) (Frumkin, 2016).

Therefore, we can surely understand the implications of excessive automobile pollution of the environment. We are taking our planet to a precarious position where its natural powers of rejuvenation are becoming dysfunctional (Seto, Fragkias, Güneralp, & Reilly, 2011). If we continue using vehicles at this rate indiscriminately, the earth will soon become uninhabitable. Therefore, it is of utmost importance for us to check our carbon footprints and start caring for the planet. It is the small steps that really matter in the long run. We should give up using personal or private transports and avail public ones or opt for sustainable alternatives like bicycles or electric vehicles (Im et al. 2018). Efforts should also be directed towards the raising of the awareness level of the population. Public campaigns should also be conducted. The remedy for the current situation has been discussed in detail in the following section in the recommendations section.

Rationale

Conclusion

The main significant thing that can be seen from the analysis is that the use of personal vehicles by the students and the related personnels is the main cause for the creation of the huge ant of both air as well as sound pollution. The overuse of fossil fuels by the individual commutes creates huge risk of scarcity of fossil fuels, wastage of it as well as pollution. Due to the increased number of vehicles, traffic jams are seen in and around the campus also which elevates the amount of pollution. The main weakness is the use of personal vehicles From the analysis, the strength shall be by making use of public transport and other kind of mediums that shall help in reducing the effects and the amount of pollution. The opportunities may be the use and the start of commula ind of transport system which should be arranged in order to counter the effects of the pollution created by transportation and wholly conserve the environment (Kwan & Hashim,2016).

It can be mainly recommended that the college authorities should strictly keep a record of the persona transports used by the students and should make a mechanism to check their licenses and pollution clearance papers on a periodic basis in order to decrease the level of pollution. They should further arrange for a number of buses or big vans which can be used by many of the students who make use of personal transport mediums. They should also enact laws so that the students are forced to make use of the communal transport arranged by the authorities. This shall helps in reducing the amount of pollution and the negative impacts on the environment.

References

Airqualityontario, 2018 AQHI Available at: www.airqualityontario.com/ [Accessed on 13 August 2018

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Govindan, K., Rajendran, S., Sarkis, J., & Murugesan, P. (2015). Multi criteria decision making approaches for green supplier evaluation and selection: a literature review. Journal of Cleaner Production, 98, 66-83.

Im, U., Christensen, J. H., Geels, C., Hansen, K. M., Brandt, J., Solazzo, E., … & Bianconi, R. (2018). Influence of anthropogenic emissions and boundary conditions on multi-model simulations of major air pollutants over Europe and North America in the framework of AQMEII3. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 18(12), 8929-8952.

Jerrett, M., Arain, A., Kanaroglou, P., Beckerman, B., Potoglou, D., Sahsuvaroglu, T., … & Giovis, C. (2015). A review and evaluation of intraurban air pollution exposure models. Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology, 15(2), 185.

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Mueller, N., Rojas-Rueda, D., Cole-Hunter, T., de Nazelle, A., Dons, E., Gerike, R., … & Nieuwenhuijsen, M. (2015). Health impact assessment of active transportation: a systematic review. Preventive medicine, 76, 103-114.

Seto, K. C., Fragkias, M., Güneralp, B., & Reilly, M. K. (2011). A meta-analysis of global urban land expansion. PloS one, 6(8), e23777.

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Srinivasan, S., O’fallon, L. R., & Dearry, A. (2013). Creating healthy communities, healthy homes, healthy people: initiating a research agenda on the built environment and public health.American journal of public health, 93(9), 1446-1450