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Environmental Risk Assessment
IETC's Input into the Sustainable Cities Process

Global interest in achieving Sustainable Cities has moved urban environmental management to the forefront. Each municipality, region, or nation that addresses development faces multiple options, each presenting potentially different environmental consequences. Environmental Risk Assessment (EnRA) provides a technical foundation to evaluate current environmental conditions and forecast future conditions under selected scenarios. IETC, in collaboration with Ecological Planning and Toxicology, Inc., is preparing an issue paper that illustrates the role of EnRA in guiding stakeholders and decision makers through the technical aspects of environmental management. The paper explains the critical nature of ensuring early stakeholder involvement to help define the focus of risk assessment during the "Problem Formulation" phase of a project. Technical sections dealing with "Analysis" and "Risk Characterization" summarize human and ecological risk assessment methodology, conceptual models, qualitative and quantitative risk, uncertainty, and comparative risk. Special attention is given to effective communication of risk as a pivotal step toward integration of risk predictions with urban management and economic development objectives.

Following completion of the issue paper, IETC plans to initiate a series of regional workshops on EnRA. Using an interactive format between instructors and participants, the workshops will provide guidance in the use of EnRA in a Sustainable Cities Project (SCP). As the materials are being developed, IETC is targeting an initial audience that has direct interest in the Sustainable Cities Programme. The focus of the workshops will be to enable technical managers to identify, select, and interact with departmental technical staff and consultants in the various aspects of environmental risk assessment. The paper and subsequent workshops will have three primary objectives:

1. To develop a functional understanding of Environmental Risk Assessment as a strategic planning tool for modern environmental management and economic development. This objective will be achieved in the workshop by simulating a Human Health Risk Assessment using a tailored case study; simulating a Ecological Risk Assessment using a tailored case study; and by demonstrating and illustrating the integration of Environmental Risk Assessment with environmental management options and economic development plans.
   
2. To foster broad-based stakeholder participation in the critical "Problem Formulation" Phase of Environmental Risk Assessments. Objective number two will be achieved with stakeholder identification techniques; discussions eliciting explicit and implicit values and needs of stakeholders related to environmental resources using regional examples; and by illustrating the integration of social, political, and economic perspectives in framing the questions to be addressed in an Environmental Risk Assessment.
   
   
3. To enhance the dialogue among urban environmental managers, economic development specialists, and stakeholders charged with achieving sustainability. The third objective will be to promote cross-sectoral awareness and communication skills that lead to: improved quality of scientific and technical information on environmental resources, human activities, and long-term environmental consequences; incorporation of concepts regarding comparative risks and benefits associated with management and development options; and improved communication among stakeholders.

The paper and workshop series will provide UNEP-IETC and its collaborative units with the technical capacity needed to assist an SCP through incorporation of EnRA in urban environmental management. This technology will promote development of more effective and more efficient projects leading to improved environmental conditions.

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• International Year of Biodiversity
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