Environmental Assessment and Rehabilitation of Bluff Dunes
Due to a tip off by the community our client was visited by the Green Scorpion unit to investigate damage to dunes on his property in the Bluff.
The Department issued an enforcement notice instructing that an Environmental Assessment be completed and for a Rehabilitation plan to be drafted.
During the site visit it was observed that the on the seaward facing slope section of the property, a wooden deck, Loffelstein retaining wall and another brick wall had been constructed. In addition domestic waste and building rubble were dumped below the deck. After a GIS investigation it was confirmed that the development and dumping of material encroached into approximately 140 square metres of the Durban Metropolitan Open Space System (D’MOSS), coastal zone and Critically Endangered Ecosystem.
Khweza Environmental Consulting was contracted by our client to prepare an Environmental Assessment and Rehabilitation Plan for the site and submit within 7 days.
The report was completed and submitted with an assessment of the damage on the environment from the activities on the site through an Environmental Assessment and recommendations on how best the damage can be mitigated, remediated and monitored through a Remediation Plan.
The assessment concluded that the damage to the environment included increased dune stability, loss of indigenous vegetation, loss of biodiversity, and pollution of the ground and soil. The significance of this damage was medium on the scale which means that without rehabilitation or mitigation measures the damage would cause secondary pollution or damage. With rehabilitation the impact can be reduced to negligible.
The landscape rehabilitation concept plan was designed to remove any waste, alien invasive and obstructive material from the site and rto e-establish dune thicket through revegetation with protected and indigenous species. The replanting regime focused on rapidly revegetating the exposed site to limit the erosion risk. Following this, the re-establishment of deep-rooting woody species is critical to ensuring slope stability.
It was the goal to create a very stable, biodiverse habitat that can essentially self sustain and develop with the prevailing conditions as all dunes are highly dynamic zones.