Search results for ""Author Tom Cairney""

Former industrial and urban land is increasingly being recycled, a practice which follows current political policy and is appropriate in the more heavily populated areas of Europe. The contamination which soils and water below such land may have suffered due to past industrial activities could pose future risks to new occupiers, or to the environment as a whole, and therefore it is important that an assessment of the risk is undertaken before such land is re-used. This volume has been written specifically to assist developers, consultants and planners who are involved in the reclamation of contaminated land in ensuring that such recycling does not expose the public or the wider environment to unacceptable risks. It provides a clear rationale for why such risk assessments are needed, outlines the current legislation regulating such activities, and indicates where the responsibilities lie for control of this development. Inevitably, the assessment approach of this book draws mainly on UK experiences and regulations but the methodology and basic principles provided are universal, and would be applicable when the safe recycling of contaminated land becomes a more important issue of development in other countries. The risk assessment approach advocated in the book will be valuable to many developers of contaminated land, since it is affordable and logical, and adequately diagnostic to identify sites where re-use will not be hazardous. The book describes a comprehensive range of risks which have been given due consideration as potential problems when former industrial land is reused, whilst also dispelling many of the vague and often unjustified concerns over land contamination.

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Environmental Consultancy Recognition of contaminated land as a potential environment risk problem has come relatively late. However, in the 1990s there is an international agreement that dealing with such problems benefits from a risk management approach. This book provides a unique, practical guide to the effective conduct of risk assessments for contaminated sites. The risk-based approach requires recognition of site investigation as a component of (not merely an adjunct to) risk assessment and a systematic gathering of quality data relevant to making judgements about risks. This is an integrated and multidisciplinary subject. The book provides an understanding of the regulatory and social context in which contaminated land risks are managed; the interdisciplinary requirements, as well as the methodologies and their limitations for investigation and assessment. The opening chapters provide risk assessment and management background, stressing pragmatic approaches to the former. The central chapters address the means of optimising the gathering of systematic information relevant to the source-pathway-target chain of concern, including the value of multi-stage investigations. The final chapters discuss the assessment of information and data, considering qualitative, semi-quantified and quantified risk assessment approaches and the use of the findings in decision making. The book has been written to complement developing guidance and requirements in the United Kingdom, but with international comparisons. The issues which underpin effective contaminated land risk assessment are universal. The book is presented so as to be understood by readers from a variety of disciplines and with different responsibilities. It will also be of value to final year undergraduates and postgraduates in civil engineering, environmental science, environmental technology, environmental chemistry and geography. It will be of relevance to environmental and engineering consultants, companies and organisations owning or purchasing potentially contaminated land and to officers in the regulatory authorities.

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