Sustainability and Remediation - Dealing with Contaminated Sites: From Theory Towards Practical Application - page 892

Table 20.1 Decision support techniques with relevance to sustainability appraisal

Env Ec So Type CSM

Scoring/ranking systems
(including multi-criteria
analysis)

Narrow to
Wide

Narrow to
Wide

Narrow to
Wide

Qual yes

Best Available Technique (BAT) Narrow to

Wide

Narrow Qual yes

Carbon footprint (“area”) Narrow Quan yes

Carbon balance (flows) Narrow Quan

Cost benefit analysis Narrow to

Wide

Narrow to
Wide

Narrow to
Wide

Quan yes

Cost effectiveness analysis Narrow to

Wide

Narrow to
Wide

Narrow to
Wide

Qual yes

Eco-efficiency Narrow Quan ?

Ecological footprint Narrow Quan

Energy / intensity efficiency Narrow Quan yes

Environmental Risk Assessment Narrow to

Wide

Quan yes

Human Health Risk Assessment Narrow yes

Environmental impact assessment /
Strategic environmental
assessment

Narrow to
Wide

Qual yes

Financial Risk Assessment Narrow Quan yes

Industrial ecology Narrow to

Wide

Narrow to
Wide

Quan

Life Cycle Assessment (based) Narrow to

Wide

Quan yes

Quality of life assessment Wide Wide Wide Qual

Indicating coverage of the environmental (En), economic (Ec) and social (So) elements of sustain-
able development; whether techniques are quantitative or qualitative; and whether contaminated
site management - CSM -applications are known to exist at present - see Section 20.3.4 .
Coverage : The table describes each technique in terms of its typical coverage of particular aspects
of sustainability, in terms of the categories set out in Table 20.2 or 20.4 . For example, a carbon
footprint appraisal focuses on a “narrow” segment of environmental sustainability issues (ignoring
for example soil functionality, Biodiversity and landscape impacts), whereas all of these aspects
could be considered by a Cost benefit analysis, providing it was suitably specified. Where no entry
is made the technique has no coverage

• indicators (metrics?) that are orientated towards consistent reporting of sustain-

ability effects, independent of particular regional, national or international policy
goals.

Policy Orientated Indicators

Target or policy orientated indicators relate directly to explicit goals. They tend to
be identified on the basis of an idea that is considered by stakeholders as being sus-
tainable. An indicator is selected that is representative of this idea, and a target is
set to indicate a policy threshold indicating a satisfactory level of performance. An