Question: is it easy to do a report?

Sarah Naylor answered on 6 Mar 2018:

There are quite a few different types of reports that I complete and they all have their difficulties. For instance:
Air Quality Assessment for a major road scheme – this can be quite complex (due to the size) and quite controversial (building a new road may mean some people lose their houses or land or it may mean that their house will end up next to a new road). If the predicted pollutant concentrations improve its usually easier to write the report than if the pollution will get worse – giving good news is always easier than giving bad news, the same can be said for report writing!
Air Quality Assessment for a new housing estate – when considering the location for new houses you need to consider whether the air quality is good enough for people to breathe in that area so I have to complete an assessment based on what the existing air quality is like. As with the other report if the air quality is good then the report is easier to write, if the air quality is bad then I need to find ways in which the location might be suitable for the development (as the report is being written for the developer so he will want to build there regardless) so I will need to think about mitigation measures (the action of reducing the severity of something) to ensure that people can live in that area without causing harm to their health.
Odour Assessment for a new sewage treatment works – I also look at odour and whether a sewage treatment works will cause odour problems for people living and working in the area. This is a very different type of report but whether it is easy to write or not again depends on the results we got from modelling the odour. If there are not predicted to be any odour problems the report is easy, if we predict high odour concentrations then the report definitely needs more thought!