Toward sustainable environmental quality : priority research questions for Europe

The United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals have been established to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all. Delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals will require a healthy and productive environment. An understanding of the impacts of chemicals which can negatively impact environmental health is therefore essential to the delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals. However, current research on and regulation of chemicals in the environment tend to take a simplistic view and do not account for the complexity of the real world, which inhibits the way we manage chemicals. There is therefore an urgent need for a step change in the way we study and communicate the impacts and control of chemicals in the natural environment. To do this requires the major research questions to be identified so that resources are focused on questions that really matter. We present the findings of a horizon-scanning exercise to identify research priorities of the European environmental science community around chemicals in the environment. Using the key questions approach, we identified 22 questions of priority. These questions covered overarching questions about which chemicals we should be most concerned about and where, impacts of global megatrends, protection goals, and sustainability of chemicals; the development and parameterization of assessment and management frameworks; and mechanisms to maximize the impact of the research. The research questions identified provide a first-step in the path forward for the research, regulatory, and business communities to better assess and manage chemicals in the natural environment. Environ Toxicol Chem 2018;9999:1-15

Toward a Holistic and Risk-Based Management of European River Basins

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is 1 of 12 papers prepared by participants attending the workshop ¿Risk Assessment in European River Basins¿State of the Art and Future Challenges¿ held in Liepzig, Germany on 12¿14 November 2007. The meeting was organized within the framework of the European Commission's Coordination Action RISKBASE program. The objective of RISKBASE is to review and synthesize the outcome of European Commission FP4¿FP6 projects, and other major initiatives, related to integrated risk assessment¿based management of the water/sediment/soil environment at the river basin scale. The European Union Water Framework Directive (WFD) requires a good chemical and ecological status of European surface waters by 2015. Integrated, risk-based management of river basins is presumed to be an appropriate approach to achieve that goal. The approach of focusing on distinct hazardous substances in surface waters together with investment in best available technology for treatment of industrial and domestic effluents was successful in significantly reducing excessive contamination of several European river basins. The use of the concept of chemical status in the WFD is based on this experience and focuses on chemicals for which there is a general agreement that they should be phased out. However, the chemical status, based primarily on a list of 33 priority substances and 8 priority hazardous substances, considers only a small portion of possible toxicants and does not address all causes of ecotoxicological stress in general. Recommendations for further development of this concept are 1) to focus on river basin¿specific toxicants, 2) to regularly update priority lists with a focus on emerging toxicants, 3) to consider state-of-the-art mixture toxicity concepts and bioavailability to link chemical and ecological status, and 4) to add a short list of priority effects and to develop environmental quality standards for these effects. The ecological status reflected by ecological quality ratios is a leading principle of the WFD. While on the European scale the improvement of hydromorphological conditions and control of eutrophication are crucial to achieve a good ecological status, on a local and regional scale managers have to deal with multiple pressures. On this scale, toxic pollution may play an important role. Strategic research is necessary 1) to identify dominant pressures, 2) to predict multistressor effects, 3) to develop stressor- and type-specific metrics of pressures, and 4) to better understand the ecology of recovery. The concept of reference conditions to define the ecological status is hard to apply and tends to ignore the fact that ecosystems can be highly dynamic. A better understanding of ecosystem responses to changes as well as early warning systems and concepts sensitive to various stressors to discriminate disturbances from natural variation are required. Because ecosystems are closely interconnected, an integrated monitoring, diagnosis, and stressors-based management of the whole water, sediment, groundwater, soil, and air system is required considering land use and the interaction with a changing climate. Extending this holistic approach beyond a consideration of existing pressures by anticipating on future ones to use and protect the aquatic environment in a sustainable way is one of the big challenge

Passive sampling methods for contaminated sediments: risk assessment and management

This paper details how activity-based passive sampling methods (PSMs), which provide information on bioavailability in terms of freely dissolved contaminant concentrations (Cfree), can be used to better inform risk management decision making at multiple points in the process of assessing and managing contaminated sediment sites. PSMs can increase certainty in site investigation and management, because Cfree is a better predictor of bioavailability than total bulk sediment concentration (Ctotal) for 4 key endpoints included in conceptual site models (benthic organism toxicity, bioaccumulation, sediment flux, and water column exposures). The use of passive sampling devices (PSDs) presents challenges with respect to representative sampling for estimating average concentrations and other metrics relevant for exposure and risk assessment. These challenges can be addressed by designing studies that account for sources of variation associated with PSMs and considering appropriate spatial scales to meet study objectives. Possible applications of PSMs include: quantifying spatial and temporal trends in bioavailable contaminants, identifying and evaluating contaminant source contributions, calibrating site-specific models, and, improving weight-of-evidence based decision frameworks. PSM data can be used to assist in delineating sediment management zones based on likelihood of exposure effects, monitor remedy effectiveness, and, evaluate risk reduction after sediment treatment, disposal, or beneficial reuse after management actions. Examples are provided illustrating why PSMs and freely dissolved contaminant concentrations (Cfree) should be incorporated into contaminated sediment investigations and study designs to better focus on and understand contaminant bioavailability, more accurately estimate exposure to sediment-associated contaminants, and better inform risk management decisions. Research and communication needs for encouraging broader use are discussed

Synthesis of the SedNet work package 5 outcomes

Acceptance and implementation of a basin-scale approach will require significant work, both technical and political. However, successful development of a basin-scale risk management framework should provide the basis for parties with very different goals for sediment to come together in support of sustainable sediment management. We recommend that effective and sustainable management strategies focus on the entire sediment cycle, including suspension-sedimentation processes along the whole river basin. A Conceptual Basin Model (CBM), describing the dynamic processes (soil-sediment-water-contaminant) within the catchment, should be set up and the basin-scale management objectives (BMOs) should be identified in order to develop a Basin Management Plan. This Basin Management Plan should define/list the goals for both the river basin and individual sites. A comprehensive Basin Scale/Site specific risk management approach is recommended that includes the following steps: 1) The communication between managers and the public, throughout the decision process, 2) The identification of management objectives, 3) The determination of appropriate risk indicators, 4) the usage of risk indicators to prioritise sites on a river basin scale and to rank risks on site-specific scale, 5) the decision making process in which potential effects on the river basin and on the site-specific scale are weighed against each other, taking into account the economic, societal and environmental risk, and finally 6) the selection, implementation and monitoring of the final management option(s). A prerequisite for sediment management on river basin scale is the harmonization of site prioritisation (basin scale) and site-specific assessment (risk ranking) schemes A DPSIR ('Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response') approach, along with the use of CBMs to quantify and communicate basin dynamics, should be used to facilitate communication between stakeholders (including the public). We applied these to describe the relationships between social and societal forces, the objectives of risk management and the potential management options, and the prevailing interests. © 2004 ecomed publishers (Verlagsgruppe Hüthig Jehle Rehm GmbH)

Applying the ecosystem service concept to waterborne transport infrastructure

Ecosystem Services (ES) are the benefits that mankind derives from nature. These are based on the functions that natural features and organisms perform (structures of and processes within ecosystems), and of which humans make direct use, whether consciously or not. Considering ES or applying any ecosystem-based approach in environmental decision making results in a general broadening of perspectives by considering the myriad effects of human activities on ecosystems, as well as the costs and benefits to the services they provide. This presentation introduces the ES concept in the context of the Waterborne Transport Infrastructure (WTI) community. Considering the potential multi-functionality of WTI, well-designed projects can create economic, social and environmental benefits well beyond their intended transport objectives. When planning a project, the consideration of how project engineering aspects interact with biodiversity, fisheries, recreation and other sectors can allow planners and other stakeholders to make informed decisions about trade-offs and opportunities. The ES concept can help to make these visible and integrate these considerations in the project set up and evaluation (to strive for sustainability, identify win-win opportunities and avoid unintended impacts), possibly even enhancing overall project cost-benefit analysis. Building on a range of case studies, we provide practical guidance on how ES concepts can be successfully applied at different stages of a WTI project, signposting further guidance on how the navigation sector can successfully and supportively use ES concepts to enhance and promote WTI projects. This study has been undertaken as part of a PIANC Working Group and the final results will be published as a PIANC Report