What's the point? The contribution of a sustainability view in contaminated site remediation
Journal article, 2018

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.

Sustainable remediation

Sustainability assessment

Green remediation

Contaminated site remediation

Decision support tool

Author

Robert Anderson

Chalmers, Architecture and Civil Engineering, Geology and Geotechnics

FRIST competence centre

Jenny Norrman

Chalmers, Architecture and Civil Engineering, Geology and Geotechnics

FRIST competence centre

Pär-Erik Back

Swedish Geotechnical Institute (SGI)

T. Soderqvist

Anthesis AB

Lars Rosen

FRIST competence centre

Chalmers, Architecture and Civil Engineering, Geology and Geotechnics

Science of the Total Environment

0048-9697 (ISSN) 1879-1026 (eISSN)

Vol. 630 103-116

SAFIRE- Sustainability Asessment For Improved Remediation Efficiency

Formas (210-2014-90), 2014-01-01 -- 2017-12-31.

Subject Categories

Social Sciences Interdisciplinary

Environmental Management

Environmental Analysis and Construction Information Technology

DOI

10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.02.120

More information

Latest update

3/16/2022