**2.5 Environmental protection and restoration in maintenance operations**

Although infrastructure projects are often designed and constructed by studying and minimizing their potential impacts on the environment, due to a variety of mostly unpredictable causes, these facilities can cause different damages to the neighboring areas. It is essential to include the protection and restoration of such damages in the maintenance policies. The degradation of nature happens gradually, and the damages can be difficult to notice without inspections.

In Addition to restoration, the causes of the damage to nature need to be studied, and preservation from further damage must be added to the maintenance programs of the infrastructure. For instance, if soil pollution has been reported, different possible scenarios of the causes of pollution need to be considered. The common practice in such cases is relying on the most obvious cause for the damage while further assessment can reveal some causes that may seem unlikely. The comprehensiveness of the assessment has a central role in the quality of maintenance programs.

Infrastructure facilities affect the surrounding environment in various ways. Although some compromises about the negative environmental impacts are inevitable, taking certain measures can significantly reduce these impacts. The majority of the environmental protection activities are related to the design and construction phases; however, the maintenance policies of infrastructures can contribute to effectively preserve its surrounding environment. What follows are some of the methods to enhance environmental protection while the facility is operating.
