5 | CONCLUSIONS
Through field investigations of 4 clean energy projects, it is found that, during the construction process, land degradation, threatening the safety and ecological degradation occurs widely in China. The number of productive and constructive projects involving soil erosion was 42.67 × 104 from 2003 to 2018, correspondingly their scope of soil erosion prevention and control responsibility was 23.22 × 104 km2, almost the same area of the UK (24.3× 104 km2). Confliction between economic development and environmental protection is very strong in China from mountainous regions to urban regions. So, some policy suggestions are proposed as follows:
(1) The degree of soil erosion should be classified according to the amount of soil erosion and the corresponding economic loss to guarantee enough investment for the water and soil conservation projects. (2) The economic loss of soil erosion should be predicted in the soil and water conservation plan to help decision-makers make decisions that are more environmentally friendly. (3) It is necessary to ensure the protection measures and enough funds of the ecological environment before constructive engineering can be constructed. (4) It is necessary to change the old idea – pollute first, clean up later – to truly ensure that soil and water conservation facilities must be designed, constructed, and commissioned simultaneously with the main project. (5) Soil and water conservation monitoring and the principal part of the project must be carried out at the same time to ensure the timely implementation of soil and water conservation engineering measures. (6) An exclusion zone is also needed in an ecologically fragile area, which prevents any human activity from aggravating the environmental disaster. (7) Public awareness of soil erosion prevention should be improved, which is considered as an important factor for fundamentally controlling environmental issues caused by productive and constructive engineering.
The ecological and environmental problems caused by the clean energy projects and their causes, as well as the prevention and treatment policy suggestions can provide reference and guidance for the future clean energy projects and other construction projects in China or other countries, to prevent the common occurrence of similar problems in the future development projects.