Management of abandoned and contaminated land - Environmental Deterioration and Contamination: Problems and their Management - page 167

Management of abandoned and
contaminated land
Y. Spira 1 , K. Gruiz 2 , N. Uzinger 3 & A. Anton 3
1 Federal Environment Agency,Vienna, Austria
2 Department of Applied Biotechnology and Food Science, Budapest University of
Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary
3 Institute for Soil Sciences and Agricultural Chemistry, Centre for Agricultural
Research, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
ABSTRACT
Management of contaminated land is worth distinguishing from the management of
the environment in general, due to the special characteristics and needs of contami-
nated sites as well as the gathered expertise which resulted in generally applicable risk
management, assessment and remediation measures and protocolized methodologies.
The European developments in the field of the management of contaminated land
mirror the efforts carried out in Europe in the last 20 years. This chapter outlines
the legal background, history, theory and the most important European research and
development, as well as networking programs involved in the complex activity of the
establishment of knowledge on ecologically and economically efficient environmental
risk management methods and technologies in risk management of contaminated sites.
1 EUROPEAN ACTION PROGRAMS IN AID OF THE
MANAGEMENT OF CONTAMINATED LAND
Y. Spira
In a modern Europe, efficient environmental management has to cover topics such as
sustainability and innovation if future European industries and services are supposed
to be globally competitive. This has been recognized by the European Commission,
and was addressed in the Fifth Environmental Action Program (1992) and in The Sixth
Environment Action Program (2002-2012) after the evaluation of the activities and
steps made “Toward Sustainability.'' These programs have led to numerous activities
and projects in the past, and have considerably influenced today's views on efficient
environmental management. In order to understand the progress already made, past
developments and the current situation will be described with regard to contaminated
land management. The following overview is intended to cover some relevant initiatives
in a nonexhaustive way.
The topic of sustainability came into focus in the 1990s, and was reflected in the
title of the Fifth Environmental Action Program which was approved in 1993. One year
later, in 1994, the Common Forum on Contaminated Land in the European Union was