Estimating the environmental risk of construction activities on the ecological receptors along the Egyptian Red Sea coast

摘要

Tourism is one of the main contributors to the Egyptian economy. The Red Sea coastal area represents one of the major tourist attractions. It has witnessed a large increase in tourism developments. Uncontrolled tourism developments, with their associated construction activities, have led to deterioration in the ecological resource base of the region. The paper investigates the construction activities and associated stressors that could result in deterioration of the valuable ecological components existing along the Egyptian Red Sea coast. Fulfilling that aim required estimating the ecological risks associated with the construction of an already established development, and tracking backward the stressors that were responsible for high-risk levels. An Environmental Risk Assessment (ERA) Model was used. It estimates the risk of causing environmental harm to existing ecological receptors, while considering the cumulative effect of different stressors and impacts resulting from various construction activities. As a result, changes in the master plan, construction methods and/or mitigation measures were suggested to decrease the magnitude of these stressors and minimize the ultimate impacts and final risk over existing significant ecological receptors.