Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
uses. Preventive activities include prevention of accidents, pollution or pests as well
as natural conservation to prevent the extinction of sensitive species and ecosystems
and protect their habitat, i.e. to maintain the balance and self-healing potential of
the environment. Prevention uses legal systems and strategies such as the IPPC, safe
planning and design of buildings, technologies and land uses and specific management
tools such as early warning or nature protection.
Management of contaminated land is still an update problem in most of the
European countries. In spite of tremendous technical and financial efforts, and the
remediation of 80,000 highly contaminated sites, many inherited spills, brownfields,
abandoned and contaminated sites remain all over Europe as residues/remnants of
industrial and mining activities of the past and present, as well as illegal waste disposal
and other unregulated and improper use of the environment. The number of con-
taminated sites in Europe is 250,000 but the number of sites of potentially polluting
activities is estimated to be 3 million showing a continuously increasing trend (EEA,
2007). In Asia, Africa and South America the situation is even worse: heavy industry
and mining relocated from developed countries to third countries have resulted in much
higher damage to the environment due to less stringent regulations and poor manage-
ment. The same is true for illegal waste export: a dangerous substance poses higher risk
in a country with poor environmental legislation and management than in countries
with strict regulation and control. As a result, the total risk on global level increases.
Management of contaminated land—the main topic of this topic—includes char-
acterization of contaminated sites, preparation of inventories, identification of present
and future land uses, assessing risks posed by the pollution at the site, the evaluation
of the remediation options and finding the best solution for reducing the risk, making
the site suitable for a beneficial use.
Risk-based environmental management represents one of the most important con-
cepts in environmental and contaminated land management. It is based on “risk-based''
approaches, meaning that the main pillar of the decisions is or should be the existence
and size of the risk, and the adverse effects behind the risk. The basic strand of this
topic is also the risk, the risk of chemical substances in the environment, their adverse
effects and risks determining decisions and management tasks.
A risk-based approach needs widespread knowledge of chemicals (potential or
actual contaminants) in the environment and their interactions. Going further in the
environmental management process and decision making, risk will be only one aspect,
beside social and economic impacts, which are often in conflict which each other. This
means that mankind should live with a rather high level of environmental risk in order
to gain employment, income, services, etc.
Efficient environmental management, as it is considered today, is integrated and
sustainable and is able to reach the ever more ambitious environmental quality targets.
7 ENVIRONMENTAL EFFICIENCY, ECO-EFFICIENCY
AND SUSTAINABILITY
Environmental efficiency and eco-efficiency are innovative concepts: they have
emerged in the last 10 years after the short dominance of cost-efficiency, the
only economy-based concept of management option evaluation and the cost-benefit
Search WWH ::




Custom Search