An environmental standard is a policy guideline that regulates the effect of human activity upon the environment. Standards may specify a desired state (e.g. lake pH should be between 6.5 and 7.5) or limit alterations (e.g. no more than 50% of natural forest may be damaged).
Environmental standards are a set of quality conditions that are adhered or maintained for a particular environmental component and function. The different environmental activities have different concerns and therefore different standards.
Famous quotes containing the word standard:
“As in political revolutions, so in paradigm choice—there is no standard higher than the assent of the relevant community. To discover how scientific revolutions are effected, we shall therefore have to examine not only the impact of nature and of logic, but also the techniques of persuasive argumentation effective within the quite special groups that constitute the community of scientists.”
—Thomas S. Kuhn (b. 1922)