Environmental risks and impacts - Environmental Deterioration and Contamination: Problems and their Management - page 220

- Natural attenuation, covering a complex mixture of physical, chemical, biological

and ecological events and processes, played out in nature and potentially controlled
by the technologist;

- Simple, multiple and cascade technologies;

- In situ, ex situ , on-site or off-site technologies;

- Conventional or innovative technologies.

The remediation technologies are classified and introduced in detail in Volume 4
of the topic series “Engineering tools for environmental risk management''.

10 INCREASING EFFICIENCY OF ENVIRONMENTAL
MANAGEMENT

The optimal management of the environment needs the integrated application of a
number of engineering tools. In addition to the proper selection and integrated appli-
cation of the management tools, the continuous validation of decisions is necessary
and corrective measures must be applied in an iterative way. Increasing legal and social
requirements and stricter environmental quality criteria increase the pressure/need for
a more efficient ERM.
The relationship between results (quality/efficiency) and effort (cost) in ERM
shows a steep increase toward improving quality (Figure 8.11, ocher column). In
the current risk management practice, costs may increase to a multiple when higher
requirements have to be fulfilled. Innovative site assessment and remediation tech-
niques, an integrated approach for acquisition, characterization and evaluation of data
can ensure higher quality at identical or lower costs (green column in Figure 8.11). The

Figure 8.11 Relationship between cost and efficiency of environmental technologies.