What is zoning? Zoning is the practice of allocating different areas of a Town, or City different uses. Zoning is an explicit and legal way of ordering land uses and is the basic tool of urban planning today. Through zoning, local governments have the legal obligation (police power given to them by state goveernments) to relate every piece of private property to all others and to be concerned about the health, safety and well being of the community (http://www.uwec.edu/geography/Ivogeler/w270/zoning-history.htm). Zoning allows a local government to control and regulate the uses and characteristics of buildings, structures, and land within its boundaries. The authority for zoning is broadly based on a community's police power, allowing for the protection of the public's health, safety, and general welfare (http://archive.cityofpaloalto.org/knowzone/news/details.asp?NewsID=787&TargetID=239#introduction). History of Zoning In the United States
Types of zoning There are several types of zoning codes in use today and combinations thereof. It is sometimes difficult to distinguish between the "types" of codes and their respective "formats" or "techniques", so all will be discussed here to some extent (http://archive.cityofpaloalto.org/knowzone/news/details.asp?NewsID=787&TargetID=239#introduction). Residential zones Single Detached Residential Zone
Commercial zones Neighbourhood Convenience Commercial Zone
Industrial zones Industrial Business Zone
Urban Services zones Urban Service Zone
Benefits of zoning
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Introduction EIA is a systematic examination conducted to determine whether or not an activity or project will have any adverse impact on the environment. It is designed to Identify, Interpret, predict and communicate information about the impact of a project. It is a critical and objective examination of the impacts of a project on the environment before its implementation. The term impact describes both negative and positive environmental influences caused by a project. Functions of E.I.A
Core values of E.I.A
Guiding Principles of E.I.A
Most fires are preventable.Those responsible for workplaces and other buildings to which the public have access can avoid them by taking responsibility for and adopting the right behaviours and procedures. However, before we proceed with this discussion, it is important to understand the general fire safety hazards. GENERAL FIRE SAFETY HAZARDS Fires need three things to start - a source of ignition (heat), a source of fuel (something that burns) and oxygen. Sources of ignition include: Naked Flames, heaters, lighting, electrical equipment, smokers' materials (cigarettes, matches etc) and anything else that can get very hot or cause sperks. Sources of fuel include: Paper, wood, plastic rubber or form, loose packaging materials, waste rubbish furniture among other matrials. Source of Oxygen is of course the air around us. KENYA'S LEGISLATION ON FIRE SAFETY According to the Occupational Safety and Health Act, 2007 of the Laws of Kenya, Safety provisions in the case of a fire, section 81.(9), 'Every occupier of a work place shall take effective steps to ensure that all persons employed therein are familiar with the means of escape in case of firem and with the routine to be followed in case of fire'. Section 81.(1) of the same Law states that, 'In every workplace or workroom there shall be':
ACTION TO BE TAKEN Employers, building owners and or occupiers must carry out fire safety risk assessments and keep them up to date. This shares the same approach as health and safety risk assessments and can be carried out either as part of an overall risk assessment or as a separate exercise. Based on the findings of the assessment, building owners, employers and /or occupiers need to ensure that they provide adequate and appropriate fire safety measures to minimise the risk of injury or loss of life in the event of a fire. To help prevent fire in the workplace, a risk assessment ought to identify what could cause a fire to start i.e. sources of ignition (heat and/or sperks) and substances that burn and the people who may be at risk. Once the risks have been identified, appropriate action ought to be taken to control them. Consideration should be given to whether they can be avoided altogether or, if not possible, how they can be reduced and managed. Consideration should also be given to how people will be protected if there is a fire. KEY POINTS TO REMEMBER
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Some social scientists believe that accidents may reflect a person’s attitude towards life. They reason that frequent accidents are symptomatic of inadequate social adjustment. They state that as one’s person sense of social responsibility increases, the potential for accidents decreases correspondingly. The assumption is that as one lives by the internalized set of rules which govern one’s behavior in all activities. The more these rules reflect social irresponsibility the more likely it is that the individual will suffer an accident. This is quite relevant to the Kenyan Situation where both the government and the citizens don’t seem to care about fire safety management until when fires disasters occur.
Suchman theorized that rejection of social constraints leads to a higher incidence of accident injuries. He studied more than 1,500 high school and college students through personal interviews and written questionnaires. A significant relationship was found between accidents and characteristics commonly associated with social deviance. He reasoned that behavioral activities such as fighting and cheating on tests represented an attitude of social irresponsibility and could cause a person to be a high-risk candidate for accidental occurrences. (See figure below). That Nairobi's Thika 'Superhighway' was an ambitious project is not in doubt. Ambitious as it may have been, it turns out that the sustainability and objective of the project has had a lot of people asking questions. A few examples of the questions being asked are: What was the objective of the project?, and Is the project sustainable in the long-term?
Anyone who frequently uses this route has to agree that the 'superhighway' has really helped a great deal in terms of easing traffic jams. However, during peak hours-especially in the evenings after work, there are several 'traffic chock spots' on the 'superhighway' that if they had an alternative they would rather avoid at all costs. Starting from the outcasts going towards the city center these spots are: The Kenyatta University main gate area, The Kahawa Sukari underpass, The Githurai round about, Roy Sambu round about, The Ruaraka overpass and round about, The overpass by the GSU headquaters, The Pangani area underpass and finally the Globe round about. It is becoming clearer by the day that during the road design stage, the issue of population density was either underestimated, pushed to the side or ignored all together by designer, engineers and planners. Areas where population density is high and the road passed through them or near by them, ought to have been designed with feed roads and exit roads whose widths were wider than they currently are to ensure that the high number of vehicles using them were adequately catered for therefore reducing traffic jams. For instance, the notorious 'chock spot' of Roy Sambu ought to have been designed in such a way that flow of traffic in and out of the freeway is continous and not compromised as currently is. Another important issue that ought to have been given priority during the design stage is the issue of rogue public service vehicles (PSVs). The outer lanes on both sides of the 'superhighway' should have been designed so that their widths are wider enough to take care of the reckless driving by this vehicles. Because the outer lanes on both sides of the 'superhighway' are always prone to being chocked by traffic and obstructions by indsciplined PSV drivers; the same PSVs have made it a habit to use the freeway then pull over right on the freeway and drop passangers there. This is tranfering the problem from the side lanes to the freeway and this will soon spell disaster. Just a year after the project was commissioned, sections of the road have been vandalised by goons who like working under the cover of darkness. Street lights, Safety signs and some road barriers have gone missing courtesy of this guys. If this can happen in a year, what should we expect five years after the project was commissioned? To sum up, Thika superhighway was an ambitious project; A project which some argue came way too early before its time. Others say the Kibaki government misplaced its priorities by implementing a project of such a magnitide while most roads in the country are in a dilapidated state. International media like CNN termed such projects as 'African fantasies' since they tend to focus on irrelevance while a majority of Africans survive on less than a dolar a day. If the issues of road discipline, vandalism and road courtesy are not taken seriously with regard to Thika superhighway, then what was thought to be a noble solution to an urbanization problem that Nairobi city faces will end up being a worse problem. This will in turn prove that the pessimists were right. Introduction
The recent Westgate mall attack perpetrated by the Al shabaab terrorists of Somalia has brought to the fore the status of safety, security and security apparatus in Kenya. People from diverse backgrounds; Muslims, Hindus and Christians alike, the young and the old were massacred in cold blood in the name of revenge by a terrorist gang that had warned Kenya long enough of impending attacks after Kenya decided in the October of 2011 to send its troops into Somalia in what was called "Operation protect the nation." Property of unknown value was destroyed and the longterm effect on the economy is going to be negative. This brings us to the following burning questions: Questions that still linger over the Westgate mall attack:
The bottom line: Following the events that unfolded on the fateful day and the way the country's security forces responded, it is clear that our security forces are ill trained, ill equipped, ill remunerated and this makes them react to security situations. Should we choose to continue this way, then we'll continue to lose innocent lives and hard earned property and this will affect the economy negatively. One sign of a failed security system is the inability to act on intelligence and surveillance data on time in order to identify and detect criminals before they commit their crimes. Since the attack, there has been no serious action to ensure there is safety and security in this country- all we hear in the media is pure 'lip service' and the call for every Kenyan neighbours to know one another. Only time will tell if measures were taken to prevent a repeat of such an event but for the moment, "Be vigilant because you are your own security". The dangers of UV rays are well known. Protection of your eyes and wearing proper eye protection is is very important for the safety of an individual and or employees.
Sunglasses should be worn when an individual or employee is outdoors in order to protect their eyes from damaging UV rays. Mounting evidence shows that exposure to UV rays can lead to cataracts, mascular degradation or skin cancer around the eyelids. Below are factors to consider whe choosing eye protection:
An effective incident prevention program in a company should include the defined responsibilities for managers, supervisors and employees. Managers and supervisors have the responsibility of providing a safe work place, ensuring compliance to the company safety policy as well as managing production issues.
On the other hand, employees are foundation of any safety policy and are expected to be responsible which starts with simple things like being on time, working safely the entire day and addressing concerns as they arise to their supervisors. Below is an example of suggested areas of employee responsibility:
The above are just a few areas employees ought to be responsible. Other areas shoud be developed to assist in safety thus promoting production. Sources
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