Sustainable Assessment
appraisal
Overview
In the
recent time concept of sustainable development gained governmental
recognition. Sustainable development has been defined as: “….
Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the
ability of future generations to meet their own needs” Underpinning
this approach are three basic elements of sustainable development:
economic growth, environmental protection and social progress.
At
a strategic level, the remediation of contaminated sites supports the goal
of sustainable development by helping to conserve land as a resource,
preventing the spread of pollution to air, soil and water, and reducing
the pressure for development on
green field
sites. However, remediation activities themselves have their own
environmental, social and economic impacts. On a project-by-project
basis, the negative impacts of remediation should not exceed the benefits
of the project.
Remediation
objectives typically relate to environmental and health risks and perhaps
performance of geotechnical / construction measures. These may form
part of a larger regeneration project with social and economic aims, such
as attracting inward investment. What is realisable, and the
approaches that can be taken, will be subject to certain site/project
specific boundaries, for example the time and money available for the
remediation works, the nature of the contamination and ground conditions,
and the site location. The objectives that can be realised by
remediation works represent a compromise between desired environmental
quality objectives and these site-specific boundaries. This
compromise is reached by a decision making process involving several
stakeholders. This decision making process is often protracted and
costly. The objectives set can be said to represent the core of the
remediation project. Remediation processes are then commissioned to
achieve these core objectives. Good practice is for a number of
remedial alternatives to be selected and compared, which have the
potential to meet the core objectives.
However,
these core objectives typically do not consider the overall environmental,
economic and social effects of the remediation work to be carried out,
i.e. they do not address its overall value in the context of sustainable
development. For example, the overall environmental value of a
project will be a combination of both the improvements desired by the core
objectives, and also the wider environmental benefits and impacts of the
remediation work, as illustrated in Figure 1. These wider effects
are not considered by the core objectives, and so can be described as “non-core”.
A similar analysis can be made for the overall value to social progress
and the overall value for economic growth. The overall value in the
context of sustainable development is the combination of these overall
environmental, social and economic values. In
many countries the wider effects of remediation projects are becoming
increasingly important in decision making, both as a result of general
policy moves to support sustainable development, and as a result of
specific pressures, for example:
Pressure
to consider a broader range of environmental effects - avoidance of
transfer of pollutants, and avoidance of nuisance to local neighbourhoods;
Pressure
to consider a broader range of economic effects - need to demonstrate
value for money, and particularly the added value of projects for example
for investors and planners; and
Pressure
to consider a broader range of social consequences - to stimulate greater
public and community interest in projects.
It
is concerns about wider environmental effects (including resource use)
that have hitherto been leading the debate about “sustainable
remediation”
Wider
Economic Effects
In
terms of the economic element of sustainable development, a remediation
project’s overall economic performance is the sum of the economic
elements of the core and non-core aims of a remediation project. The
core aims are those fixed by the primary drivers and constraints of the
project. Non-core performance is related to wider economic, economic
and social impacts and benefits. Wider economic effects might
include a variety of effects such as effects on: local business and inward
investment; local employment, blight and occupancy of the site Click
here for further information.
Wider
Environmental Effects
In
terms of the environmental element of sustainable development, a
remediation project’s overall environmental performance is the sum of
the environmental elements of the core and non-core aims of a remediation
project. The core aims are those fixed by the primary drivers and
constraints of the project. Non-core performance is related to wider
environmental, economic and social impacts and benefits. Wider
environmental effects might include a variety of components within
categories such as: aggravation factors, air and atmosphere; water
function, ground function; legacy; resource and energy utilisation; and
conservation.
Wider
Social Effects
In
terms of the social element of sustainable development, a remediation
project’s overall social performance is the sum of the social elements
of the core and non-core aims of a remediation project. The core
aims are those fixed by the primary drivers and constraints of the
project. Non-core performance is related to wider social, economic
and social impacts and benefits. Wider social effects might include
a issues such as: effects of blight on quality of life, community concerns
about remedial approach, amenity value of the site and provision of
infrastructure. Click here for further information.
Sustainability
Assessment / Appraisal Tools
Contaminated
land sustainability assessment tools or appraisal tools are instruments to
assess the economic, environmental and/or social effects of contaminated
land problems and their management
Decision
support exists to help those who have to take decisions deal with the
complex and wide-ranging information involved in contaminated land
management. Decision support can be provided as written guidance (flow
sheets, model procedures) and/or software. It aims not only to facilitate
decision making but to help ensure that the process is transparent,
documented, reproducible and hopefully robust, providing a coherent
framework to explore the options available. A “tool” is a
document or software produced with the aim of supporting decision making,
i.e. something that carries out a process in decision support.
Sustainability appraisal describes decision support tools intended to
determine the contribution of a particular project or action to achieving
sustainable development, considering its economic, environmental and
social effects.
Contact
us enquiry@xybernetizen.com
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