Our environment is changing all the time as the ways we live, travel, produce and consume goods evolve. This ranges from the construction of new housing and transport infrastructure to waste and water treatment plants, and from shifting technologies in energy and industry to more intensive forms of agriculture to meet societies’ needs. All of these changes and developments have an impact on our natural environment. If planned well, and in cooperation with the people that may be affected by them, developments like these can make our lives, and the lives of future generations, better. Sometimes though, development can lead to serious environmental problems and irreversible degradation. This can put people’s health, safety and quality of life at serious risk.