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5B b - RA: Site Specific (TH4/2) Site-Specific Ecological Risk Assessment: The TRIAD Approach in Practice. Mesman, Miranda1, Rutgers, Michiel1, Schouten, Ton1, Dirven-Van Breemen, Liesbet1, Bogte, Jaap1, Peijnenburg, Willie1, De Zwart, Dick1, Posthuma, Leo1, 1 RIVM, Bilthoven, Utrecht, The Netherlands ABSTRACT- Assessment of ecological risks of soil contamination at a site can be used for determining the urgency and goals of remediation, and for spatial planning of land-use. A formal decision support system (DSS) was proposed to configure instrumentation (sets of prescribed calculations, chemical measurements, bioassays, and field observations). The DSS consists of three elementary steps: 1. definition of actual or desired land-use, such as nature reserve, recreation, or agriculture; 2. summing up site-specific ecological features related to this land-use, like key species and life support functions; 3. instrumentation according to a TRIAD approach, based on the analysis of different site-specific sources of information (environmental chemistry, toxicity, ecology) and final integration. Three tiers of precision can be applied; qualitative, semi-quantitative, and fully quantitative in order to make up a cost-effective system. A presentation format was developed to communicate risk assessment results without loosing track of underlying parameters. Furthermore, conceptual uncertainties in individual assessment parameters were adequately quantified by a factor describing the differences between TRIAD data. Some results of the TRIAD approach for several field trials will be shown in this presentation. For instance nearby the zinc-smelter at Budel in the southern part of the Netherlands, field effects were demonstrated and quantified by the TRIAD approach. Clearly, bioassay information and ecological field data add to chemical-based methods. Application of the DSS and the TRIAD provides integrated and solid data useful for risk assessment procedures. Key words: Ecological Risk Assessment, Site-Specific, TRIAD |
