Environmental Engineering Reference
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be considered in this decision making process?; and what is the most appropriate
stage for decision making in terms of overall sustainability benefits?.
Setting out a “framework” for the decision-making process that affects contam-
inated land management provides some answers to these questions. The SuRF-UK
(Sustainable Remediation Forum in the UK) initiative has identified several points
at which sustainability based decision making is merited, which impact on contam-
inated land management for a particular site:
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•
High level decision making for regional spatial planning and policy - by
national/regional agencies.
•
Local level land use planning and policy, by local authorities.
•
Project based decision making that sets Remedial objectives (e.g. related to Risk
Management/development needs).
•
Remedy selection and implementation, including monitoring and verification
implications.
The higher the level of decision making the greater the range of sustainability
issues that are likely to be considered. For example, concerns at a regional level are
likely to be with the implementation of European Directives and national legislation,
such as housing and infrastructure targets, river basin management and global goals
for prosperity and social equity. Regional policy will set out broad planning visions
to highlight regional diversity and local distinctiveness, including amongst other
things, how many houses and how much employment land are needed. At a local
level decisions will focus on environmental, economic and social concerns across
an area of in the order of 10-1,000 km
2
. Considerations might include the zon-
ing of areas for different types of development and use, taking into account issues
such as transportation and infrastructure, flood risks and former land use, including
any local Brownfield strategies. At a project level, decision making will centre on
project viability, which will mean compliance with sustainability measures. These
sustainability measures may be dictated by local, regional and national policies and
regulation, for example sustainable construction, reducing fossil fuel dependency,
re-use of Brownfield land, complying with requirements to provide amenity and
links to local transportation, sustainable urban drainage and many more. At the level
of remedy selection, sustainability considerations are solely directed at a choice
between available remediation options.
What is apparent from this structure is that at the higher levels of decision mak-
ing indicators may be fairly abstract from the point of view of remedy selection (for
example relating to employment, educational achievement, prosperity, and broad
environmental concerns at a regional level). In addition, the background and exper-
tise of those taking decisions is likely to be distant from those of contaminated land
management professionals. Moving down towards local level and site based deci-
sion making, indicators of sustainability will become less abstract from the point
of view of remediation practioners. However, those taking the decisions are still
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www.claire.co.uk/surfuk
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