A Methodology for Impact and Risk Assessment in Integrated Environmental Management

Most of the Earth’s living resources are found in specific geographical locations such as the global coastal environment and the catchment basins of large river systems. Furthermore, a large proportion of the world's population lives in close proximity to these regions and is frequently dependent upon it for either part or much of its food supply and industrial raw materials. The consequence of this situation is that much of the waste, both industrial and domestic, and various other types of habitat destruction generated by the human population, occurs in those areas that are of greatest biological and economic significance. The overall problem is, how to develop effective procedures for environmental/ecological impact and risk assessment? One of the major difficulties in impact and risk assessment is to link harmful effects of chemical pollutants in individual animals and plants with the ecological consequences. Consequently, this obstacle has resulted in a “knowledge-gap” for those seeking to develop effective policies for sustainable use of resources and environmental protection. However, diagnostic “clinical-type” ecotoxicological tests or “biomarkers” and immunochemical tests for contaminants are now increasingly available; and there is a concerted international research effort to improve and extend this predictive capability. These ecotoxicological tools can provide information on the health-status of populations based on relatively small samples of individuals. Also, biomarkers can now be used to begin to link processes of molecular and cellular damage through to the higher levels (i.e., prognostic capability), where they can result in reduced performance and reproductive success. Research effort to meet this challenge is interdisciplinary in character, since the key questions mainly involve complex interfacial problems. These include the effects of physical chemical speciation of pollutant chemicals on uptake and toxicity and the toxicity of complex mixtures; as well as linking the impact of pollutants through the various hierarchical levels of biological organisation to ecosystem and human health. Finally, the development and use of process simulation models (i.e., “virtual” cells, organs and animals), illustrated here using an endosomal/lysosomal uptake and cell injury model, will further facilitate the development of a predictive capacity for estimating risk associated with the possibility of future environmental events. In conclusion, an integrated environmental management strategy must be truly cross-disciplinary if an effective capability for risk assessment and prediction is to be developed in relation to resource sustainability. Areas of collaboration need to include, among others remote/satellite surveillance, risk assessment, interpretation of complex information and predictive modelling. There also needs to be increased focus on precautionary anticipation of novel environmental hazards (e.g., from Biotechnology & Molecular Nanotechnology). And last but not least, it is crucial to educate politicians, industrialists and environmental managers concerning the long-term consequences of pollution; and that increased consumer awareness of environmental problems is exerting pressure on industry to make its products “environmentally friendly” (i.e., eco-labelling), in order to maintain existing markets and to improve their penetration into new markets.