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Environmental Risk Assessment (EnRA)

Marlito L. Cardenas, Ph.d.

ABSTRACT

Risk is broadly defined as the likelihood that a harmful consequence will occur as the result of an action or condition. It involves the combined evaluation of hazards and exposure. Environmental risk assessment (EnRA) deals with the interactions of agents or hazards, humans and ecological resources. It describes human populations, ecological resources and agents, analyzes agents and exposure potential, characterizes the potential for adverse effects, defines uncertainties, generates options to deal with the risks, and communicates information about the risks to humans and ecosystems. EnRA has two components: Human Health Risk Assessment (HHRA) and Ecological Risk Assessment (EcoRA).

EnRA provides a technical basis for evaluating current environmental conditions and forecasting future conditions under selected scenarios. EnRA is a welcome addition to the tools that an environmental planner and a manager can use to facilitate decision making by various stakeholders. Stakeholder involvement is now an accepted and valued practice in modern environmental planning and management, including EnRA, EIA and urban environmental management. Risk assessors should not only be talking risk issues with risk managers, owners or investors of development projects but also with the affected residents and sociopolitical advocates.

EnRA is a process that incorporates technical information and societal values in arriving at risk management options. At its best practice, EnRA is an iteration of scoping, screening and final tiers. Each tier progresses with increasing data requirements and can be concluded at any stage if the management decisions are already clear. The stages of doing an EnRA include: Hazard Identification and Problem Formulation, Analysis, and Risk Characterization. The main outputs are the risk management and communication plans.

Properly used, EnRA will take its place in attaining sustainable development goals of industrialized and developing countries.

INTRODUCTION

The use of EnRA in urban and regional environmental planning and management is fast becoming a standard practice - either as a stand alone or as a complement to an environmental impact assessment (EIA). Its value lies in identifying potential environmental resources for development and allowing decision-makers to select management options with least negative effects. It does so by evaluating both the benefits and consequences of development planning options, and thus minimizing unwanted or unexpected consequences - in the near-term and long-term (See Figure 1).

<figure 1>
Importance of risk assessment in urban environmental management

How Enra FITS Within The Decision-Making Loop

EnRA is a systematic and iterative process that can be employed at various tiers of decision-making, whether it is policy, program, project or activity. At the strategic level, EnRA may be employed at early stages of decision-making to include readily available scientific and other information (e.g. political, cultural, economic, legal, etc.) relevant to the strategy or policy initiative at hand.

During the feasibility study phase, EnRA helps to define and evaluate critical environmental parameters that will bear upon the decision whether to proceed, how to proceed, and what to consider in the design and site selection process.

These environmental risk factors will thus become performance indicators in the commercial process and integrated as provisions in tender and contract documents.

Key EnRA products are risk management and communication plans. These can prove useful for assuring the success and sustainability of a development policy, plan, program or project initiative. Periodic risk monitoring, re-assessment and adjustment during operations become a vital part of the due diligence practice of the organization concerned. The same due diligence is critically needed during the decommissioning, abandonment, rehabilitation and re-use phase of the development initiative.

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