Lecture

Polluted Sites: Legal Bases and Risk Assessment

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In course

ENG-474: Environmental impact assesment

Présentation des bases des études d'impact, du contexte et des outils d'évaluation de chacun des sujets et des chapitres. Illustration par de nombreux cas réels, et par un travail de groupe. Discussion des limites des EIE et des nouveaux outils tels que le ...

Description

This lecture covers the legal framework for dealing with waste and polluted sites in Switzerland, focusing on the polluter pays principle and the responsibility of site owners. It also delves into the assessment of risks associated with contaminated sites, the importance of technical investigations, and the need for sanitation measures to protect the environment and human health.

Instructor

Félix Schmidt

Teaching & PhD Courses Environmental impact assesment ENG-474 Presentation of the bases of the environmental impact assesment (EIA), context. Assesment methodology and tools for each of the topics and chapters. Illustration with many real cases, and group work. Discussion of the limitations of EIA and new tools such as strategic environmental studies.

Official source

Related concepts (32)

Risk

In simple terms, risk is the possibility of something bad happening. Risk involves uncertainty about the effects/implications of an activity with respect to something that humans value (such as health, well-being, wealth, property or the environment), often focusing on negative, undesirable consequences. Many different definitions have been proposed. The international standard definition of risk for common understanding in different applications is "effect of uncertainty on objectives".

Chernobyl disaster

The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the No. 4 reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union. Called the world's worst-ever civil nuclear incident, it is one of only two nuclear energy accidents rated at seven—the maximum severity—on the International Nuclear Event Scale, the other being the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.

Brownfield land

Brownfield refers to land that is abandoned or underutilized due to pollution from industrial use. The specific definition of brownfield land varies and is decided by policy makers and/or land developers within different countries. The main difference in definitions of whether a piece of land is considered a brownfield or not depends on the presence or absence of pollution. Overall, brownfield land is a site previously developed for industrial or commercial purposes and thus requires further development before reuse.

Fukushima nuclear disaster

On 11 March 2011, a nuclear accident occurred at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima, Japan. The proximate cause of the disaster was the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which remains the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Japan. The earthquake triggered a powerful tsunami, with 13- to 14-meter-high waves damaging the nuclear power plant's emergency diesel generators, leading to a loss of electric power.

Risk management

Risk management is the identification, evaluation, and prioritization of risks (defined in ISO 31000 as the effect of uncertainty on objectives) followed by coordinated and economical application of resources to minimize, monitor, and control the probability or impact of unfortunate events or to maximize the realization of opportunities.

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