Environmental standard

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.

There are three important types of environmental standards, which are ambient standards, emission standards, and technology standards. Ambient standard refers to the constraint level of pollutants that is allowed to have in the ambient environment. Emission standard specifies the maximum amount of pollutants that is legally allowed.Technology standards specifies the requirement of technologies that polluters must adopt.

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