Journal
ENVIRONMENT INTERNATIONAL
Volume 35, Issue 1, Pages 202-213Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2008.08.007
Keywords
Contaminated land management; EU environmental policies for soil protection; Risk assessment; D-P-S-I-R approach
Categories
Funding
- Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) [SFRH/BD/30118/2006]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Since many soil studies have already revealed the possible risks to human health and the environment arising from contaminated soils it is therefore crucial to preserve soil quality under current and future conditions. In the last three decades a number of countries already introduced national policies and practices for the management of contaminated sites, and in 2002, an EU Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection was proposed by the European Commission. In this paper we review and analyse several national contaminated land policy regimes already in place in order to assess common elements and to identify specific needs in the development of national soil policies. We propose a framework that combines the D-P-S-I-R structure of policy evaluation with the Source-Pathway-Receptor approach to health risk assessment to support the development of effective country specific regulatory decisions for managing contaminated land in countries where these are yet to be implemented. The framework proposed allows decision makers to effectively use available information and to identify existing data gaps. As a result it is apparent that while there are technical aspects of site characterisation, risk assessment and remediation processes that could be commonly implemented at an EU level there are certain trans-scientific aspects that require political choices and need to be customized by EU Member States. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available