Risk assessment

In simple terms, the purpose of a risk assessment is to determine:

Additional elements may become significant on individual sites, particularly consideration of the required design life of the project. This should take into consideration factors such as risk of inundation of a contaminated site in a 1 in 100 year flood and so on. See Figure 5.1 for a more detailed conceptual site model (CSM) than the basic one shown in Figure 2.1.

Typically, a tiered approach to risk evaluation is adopted, as set out in Table 5.1. This is consistent with the approach adopted in the UK (as set out in CLR11, Model Procedures for the Management of Land Contamination, Environment Agency, 2004) and most other countries. The level of risk assessment undertaken should be appropriate for the nature of the site and the potential risks identified. This results in straightforward, qualitative or generic quantitative assessments being undertaken at the majority of sites, with the more detailed assessments being focused on those sites with the greatest uncertainty or where the levels of contamination warrant the more in-depth analysis.