Assessing the Environmental Impacts of Special Events: examination of nine special events in Western Australia

Abstract

This research project sought to build on the Encore: Event Evaluation Kit project by examining the environmental impacts of a range of special events in order to evaluate the opportunities for developing an environmental evaluation tool or checklist. The hosts and organisers of a diverse range of nine annual special events held in Western Australia were interviewed over the course of 2005 and 2006. These included the state's largest event, the Australia Day Skyworks fireworks display, which attracts a six figure crowd to Perth Water in the centre of the city and the Avon Descent, a 'white water' time trial event for paddle and power craft conducted over two days along 134 kilometres of the Avon and Swan rivers. Other smaller scale events surveyed for the research project include a vintage car rally/race in the regional centre of Albany, a triathlon and half triathlon in the regional centre of Busselton and a local component of the RSPCA's Million Paws Walk. The environmental impacts identified by organisers and/or hosts as the most important were transport (parking and traffic), waste management (general rubbish collection, litter, recycling and the provision of toilets) and noise. For six of the events, mention was also made of putting measures in place to promote environmental awareness. Environmental impacts/issues perceived as less significant included the provision of power, (for outdoor events), air pollution (smoke haze and vehicle emissions), management of environmental risk and the minimisation of environmental harm. However, the calculation of environmental impacts is more problematic, due to the limited availability of data for most of the perceived environmental impacts and the limited enthusiasm of both organisers and hosts to collect such data.