Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
(RBLM) concept. It is a framework for development of policy, research and practice
in sustainable management of contaminated sites. It focuses on historical contam-
ination (contamination resulting from past practices) and allows for regional and
site-specific solutions.
The RBLM framework structures the decision-making process to achieve sus-
tainable solutions. It integrates two key decisions for the remediation of contami-
nated sites:
1. The time frame: this requires an assessment of risks and priorities, but also
consideration of the longer-term effects of particular choices.
2. The choice of solution: this requires an assessment of overall benefits, costs and
environmental side effects, value and circumstances of the site, community views
and other issues.
These two decisions have to take place at both an individual site level and
at a strategic level, especially as the impact of contaminated sites on the envi-
ronment cannot have a large scale regional dimension only, but also potentially
wide-ranging long-term impacts. The decision-making process needs to consider
three main components, which form the core of the RBLM concept:
1. Fitness for use.
2. Protection of the environment.
3. Long-term care.
The aim of the RBLM concept is to achieve the integration of approaches orig-
inating from different perspectives (for example spatial planning, environmental
protection, engineering), based on the identification of common goals:
•
optimised use and development of technical and administrative solutions;
•
sustainability - evaluating and optimising environmental, economic and social
factors.
23.6.1 The Term “Risk-Based Land Management”
The term Risk-Based Land Management appears similar to other expressions used
in the context of soil contamination, for example Risk-Based Site Management.
However, RBLM considers the issues from a larger scale perspective, and covers the
full range of contaminated site problems for which regulators and decision makers
are responsible. The constituent terms of the concept are carefully chosen and are
used as follows:
23.6.1.1 Risk
Risk describes the combination of the probability and the effects of contamina-
tion, for example adverse effects on human health, on ecosystems or on water
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