Risk management of chemicals and contaminated land – from planning to verification - Environmental Deterioration and Contamination: Problems and their Management - page 293

assessment. Of course, quantitative approaches are preferable and, in spite of some
problematic points, monetary characterization, which is an easy tool for quantify-
ing and aggregating different impacts, is preferred. Quantitative approaches in social
impact assessment may vary from very simple statements based on past experience
to highly sophisticated models such as the computable general equilibrium models
(CGE models). Modeling social impacts is much more difficult and costly than envi-
ronmental or economic ones. The EU Guidance for Assessing Social Impacts (2009)
formulates clearly that “an impact does not cease to exist when a model is—for struc-
tural reasons—not able to demonstrate it.'' CGE is a type of economic model that
uses actual economic data to estimate the effect of technological, managerial or policy
measures on socio-economic changes.
7 ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGYVERIFICATION (ETV)
E.Vaszita
Environmental management needs information which helps make good decisions. The
judgments and option selection in the course of environmental management should
be verified at the end. The quality of the management measure is determined by the
goodness of the tools used for RA, risk characterization and RR. These are engineering
tools, which can be and should be evaluated as part of the risk management activity.
The verification of environmental technologies is on the way to becoming uniformly
applicable, aiming at uniform approaches and methods for the evaluation.
7.1 ETV in the world
The first ETV schemes were put into practice in Canada in 1993 and in the US in 1995.
These schemes formed the basis for other current ETV systems, developed mainly in
Asia (South Korea, Japan, Bangladesh). China anticipates it will have an ETV Program
in 2015. An analysis of each type of system shows differences in objectives, means and
funding solutions.
The US and Canadian schemes aim at the same objectives: proof of performance
of technologies or products, however, the approaches are diverging.
7.1.1 ETV in the US
Objectives : The EPA ETV Program develops test protocols and verifies the performance
of innovative technologies that have the potential to improve the protection of human
health and the environment.
Means : The EPA verification scheme requires a full verification with independent
production of test data and verification against generic performance criteria.
US ETV establishes or proves the truth of the performance of a technology under
specific, predetermined criteria or protocols and a strong quality management system.
ETV efforts are guided by the expertise of stakeholder groups. ETV stakeholders assist
the program by helping to develop verification protocols for testing, prioritizing the
types of technologies to be verified and implementing outreach activities to the cus-
tomer groups they represent. ETV does not endorse, certify or approve technologies.