Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 23
Bringing Sustainable Management
of Contaminated Sites into Practice - The Role
of Policy and Regulations
Joop J. Vegter and Harald Kasamas
Abstract
This chapter focuses on application of scientific knowledge in dealing
with contaminated sites within the broader context of policies and regulations.
It reviews the development of strategies in industrial countries and describes the
current understanding of how to tackle the problem of contaminated sites in a
sustainable manner. Since the first discovery of contaminated sites at the end of
the 1970s, public and political perception has changed and the understanding of
the nature of the problem has increased considerably. Consequently, strategies for
managing these problems have been further developed and improved. Three gen-
erations of contaminated sites policy are identified and described in this chapter;
from early command-and-control regulations at a national level towards more flex-
ible, site-specific and incentive-driven management approaches at the local level.
Today, contaminated sites policy needs to address environmental and spatial plan-
ning aspects. It is important to explore and promote solutions in a multi-stakeholder
environment that satisfy both environmental and social-economic needs of the soci-
ety. Internationally accepted concepts that could lead to better problem solutions
have been developed jointly in multinational partnerships, like the Risk-Based Land
Management (RBLM) Concept of the European Union (EU) network CLARINET.
Furthermore, the chapter briefly introduces the general soil protection policy cur-
rently under development in the EU. Contamination is one of the identified soil
threats in the EU Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection and prevention of new soil
contamination should be the key aim for the future in order to provide an added
value to already existing national regulations.
Search WWH ::
Custom Search