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- Anderson, Robert, 1988
(författare)
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Efficient Remediation of Contaminated Sites - A Literature Review
- 2017
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) is concerned over the slow progress, low level of innovation, and high cost of publicly funded remediation projects in Sweden. More efficient and effective remediation of the estimated 1300 high-risk sites is needed if the national environmental objective, A Non-Toxic Environment, is to be met. Cleanup of contaminated sites, while reducing risks to human health and the environment, are known to have significant negative effects, including greenhouse gas emissions, disturbance to communities, and production of large amounts of waste to landfills. This has led to increased focus in the past decade on the sustainable remediation concept, accounting for the contradictory secondary effects of remediation. A number of sustainability assessment tools and methods are now available to assess the sustainability of remediation alternatives, including the SCORE (Sustainable Choice Of REmediation) method, developed at Chalmers. It is unclear, however, if sustainability assessment leads to increased remediation efficiency and effectiveness. The main objective of the literature review is to study how remediation efficiency and effectiveness are defined in literature and to map out possible indicators to be used in further study. It was found that remediation efficiency and effectiveness can be conceptualized on three levels: technical, project and national. Efficiency indicators focus on productivity in terms of outputs vs inputs, whereas effectiveness indicators focus on reaching specified goals or outcomes. Chosen indicators should include consideration of both risk reduction, time and costs, as well as project specific goals. Comparison of sites of differing size and characteristics with respect to efficiency and effectiveness is likely difficult given indicators considering diverse aspects.
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| 2. |
- Anderson, Robert, 1988
(författare)
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Investigating the Relation between Efficient, Effective and Sustainable Remediation of Contaminated Sites
- 2018
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Remediation of contaminated sites reduces negative impacts to humans and the environment, but the process itself is typically associated with high costs to society and large environmental footprints. The sustainable remediation concept has, over the past decade, brought increased attention to the often-overlooked contradictory effects of site remediation. At the same time, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) is concerned over the slow progress of publicly funded projects, calling for more efficient and effective remediation. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the impact of a sustainability view on the efficiency and effectiveness of contaminated site remediation. How efficiency and effectiveness are considered in literature with respect to contaminated sites was studied. The contribution of a sustainability view on the selection of remedial actions was demonstrated through scenario analysis (Paper I). This involved using the SCORE sustainability assessment method to analyze four real case study sites in Sweden. Remediation alternatives at the same four case studies were assessed based on project efficiency and effectiveness indicators found from literature and group interviews (Paper II). Sustainability assessment, considering broader environmental effects, soft social aspects, and economic externalities, can result in a decision support outcome which differs compared with more limited assessment approaches, typically balancing trade-offs such as the extent of remediation with negative secondary effects such as emissions. The studied effectiveness and efficiency indicators, pertaining primarily to time, costs, and amounts removed, generally favour the most extensive and low-cost alternatives, respectively. The indicators are not seen to strongly support the most sustainable alternatives, however a full sustainability view likely leads to less extensive and expensive remediation projects compared to a traditional assessment approach.
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| 3. |
- Anderson, Robert, 1988, et al.
(författare)
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What's the point? The contribution of a sustainability view in contaminated site remediation
- 2018
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Ingår i: Science of the Total Environment. - : Elsevier BV. - 0048-9697 .- 1879-1026. ; 630, s. 103-116
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Decision support tools (DST) are often used in remediation projects to aid in the complex decision on how best to remediate a contaminated site. In recent years, the sustainable remediation concept has brought increased attention to the often-overlooked contradictory effects of site remediation, with a number of sustainability assessment tools now available. The aim of the present study is twofold: (1) to demonstrate how and when different assessment views affect the decision support outcome on remediation alternatives in a DST, and (2) to demonstrate the contribution of a full sustainability assessment. The SCORE tool was used in the analysis; it is based on a holistic multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) approach, assessing sustainability in three dimensions: environmental, social, and economic. Four assessment scenarios, compared to a full sustainability assessment, were considered to reflect different possible assessment views; considering public and private problem owner perspectives, as well as green and traditional assessment scopes. Four real case study sites in Sweden were analyzed. The results show that the decision support outcome from a full sustainability assessment most often differs to that of other assessment views, and results in remediation alternatives which balance trade-offs in most of the scenarios. In relation to the public perspective and traditional scope, which is seen to lead to the most extensive and expensive remediation alternatives, the trade-off is related to less contaminant removal in favour of reduced negative secondary effects such as emissions and waste disposal. Compared to the private perspective, associated with the lowest cost alternatives, the trade-off is higher costs, but more positive environmental and social effects. Generally, both the green and traditional assessment scopes miss out on relevant social and local environmental secondary effects which may ultimately be very important for the actual decision in a remediation project.
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| 4. |
- Volchko, Yevheniya, 1979, et al.
(författare)
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SNOWMAN - MCA: Multi-criteria analysis of remediation alternatives to access their overall impact and cost/benefit, with focus on soil function (ecosystem services and goods) and sustainability
- 2014
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This final report summarises major activities, results and conclusions derived within the SNOWMAN-MCA project. The main objective of the SNOWMAN-MCA project (2009-2013) was to demonstrate the use of multi-criteria analysis (MCA) in evaluating land management and soil remediation alternatives to access their overall impact on sustainability, with focus on soil functions and soil services. Soil functions are critical for ecosystem survival and for ecosystems’ provision of services to humans, and maintained soil function is a key parameter in sustainable development. The SNOWMAN-MCA project was based on studies of three representative polluted sites in Sweden and Austria, and included a range of conventional and innovative remediation scenarios. Key results of the SNOWMAN-MCA project include:• A suggested hierarchy between soil functions, soil processes, soil services and ecosystem services, resulting in a set of soil function related ecological, socio-cultural and economic criteria and sub-criteria to be used in MCA.• A suggested minimum data set (MDS) of soil quality indicators for soil function evaluation, and a software tool (SF Box) for calculating changes in soil quality based on the proposed MDS.• A suggested structured and transparent approach for incorporating soil function and soil use aspects into sustainability appraisal of remediation alternatives using MCA.Using input from research carried out in tandem with the SNOWMAN-MCA project, the impact of remediation in the ecological, socio-cultural and economic domain was further assessed, including suggested criteria for the socio-cultural domain and research on how uncertainty may be addressed in MCA. Based on this research and on previous efforts (Rosén et al., 2009), an MCA software tool (SCORE) was developed, and used for evaluating the sustainability of suggested remedial actions at the studied sites. The results from the SCORE tool are in this report presented together with the results of the SNOWMAN-MCA project, demonstrating a holistic approach to sustainable remediation.
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