Diapositiva 1

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Research local and think European the ERA-MANIA
project
Antonio Marcomini, Andrea Critto, Elena
Semenzin, Claudio Carlon Interdepartmental Centre
IDEAS - University of Venice
Ton AJ Schouten, Miranda Mesman, Michiel Rutgers
National Institute for Public Health and the
Environment, RIVM
Silvio Giove Department of Applied Mathematics -
University of Venice
DG-JRC ERA Workshop Ispra, 3-4 February 2005
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ERA-MANIA PROJECT
University of Venice IDEAS
ECOLOGICAL RISK ASSESSMENT DEVELOPMENT OF A
METHODOLOGY AND APPLICATION TO SITES OF NATIONAL
INTEREST THE CASE OF ACNA DI CENGIO
(Funded by the Italian Government Commissary for
the rehabilitation of the Bormida Valley)
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ERA-MANIA PROJECT
University of Venice IDEAS
GENERAL OBJECTIVE providing tools for the
megasite management in Italy
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE ecological risk analysis
application to the ACNA megasite, in order to
obtain suitable remediation and monitoring
programmes options.
EXPECTED RESULTS

• Development and application of generic soil
  quality values (Soil Screening Values), related
  to different land uses, in the ERA screening
  level
• Development of an ERA site-specific procedure
  based on TRIAD approach and aiming at defining
  suitable remediation and monitoring plan

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Italian Ecological Risk Assessment procedure
proposed by National Environmental Protection
Agency (ANPA, 2002)
SCOPING
Check list Starting point for the collection of
appropriate biological data to be used in
developing a preliminary ecosystem conceptual
model
PRELIMINARY ECOSYSTEM CONCEPTUAL MODEL
SCREENING
Selection of soil-use categories
Definition of Ecological Aspects for each soil use
Does soil concentration exceed SSV?
S T O P
SOIL SCREENING VALUES (SSV) based on soil use
No
Yes
Tier 1 Tier 2 Tier 3
SITE-SPECIFIC RISK ASSESSMENT (TRIAD
procedure RIVM, 2001)
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SCOPING
CHECKLIST The checklist is divided into the
following sections I. Site Description IA.
Summary of Observations and Site Setting II.
Terrestrial Habitat Checklist IIA. Woods IIB.
Shrub/Scrub IIC. Open Field IID.
Miscellaneous III. Aquatic Habitat Checklist --
Non-Flowing Systems IV. Aquatic Habitat
Checklist -- Flowing Systems V. Wetlands Habitat
Checklist
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SCREENING RISK ASSESSMENT
SOIL SCREENING VALUES
Land use based
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SITE-SPECIFIC RISK ASSESSMENT
WEIGHT OF EVIDENCE (WOE) APPROACH
TRIAD APPROACH
- combines information from multiple lines of
evidence to reach a conclusion about an
environmental system or stressor (Chapman, 2002
Burton, 2002) - combines analysis of field data
(to determine patterns) with experimental
hypothesis testing (to determine mechanisms) to
make prediction of the future effects and provide
appropriate management recommendations. (Lowell,
2000)
simultaneous and integrated usage of chemical,
toxical and ecological lines of evidence in the
risk assessment (Chapman, 1996 Rugters, 2001)
DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM (DSS)
Integrated, interactive computer system,
consisting of analytical tools and information
management capabilities, designed to assist
experts and decision makers when assessment and
management of critical, complex and unstructured
environmental problems requires consensus
building among different experts and stakeholders
(Watkins and McKinney, 1995 Newman et al., 2000)
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The TRIAD approach (RIVM, 2001)
TRIAD hypothesis Combined effort and evaluation
of results from three independent disciplines in
ecotoxicology provides pragmatic reduction of
conceptual uncertainties (RIVM, 2001)
Environmental quality criteria exceeded
Toxicity present (bioassays)
Ecological effects in the field
CONCLUSIONS



Strong indication for ecological effects of
contamination
-
-
-
No effects
-
-

Contaminants present, but not bioavailable
-
-

Unknown contamination, toxicity demonstrated
etc.
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SITE-SPECIFIC RISK ASSESSMENT
TRIAD levels of investigation defined in
ERA-MANIA DSS
TIER 1 the analysis can stop at this level only
if the estimated risk is considered to be
acceptable with a minimum level of uncertainty
TIER 2 in this level the unacceptable risks
resulted in the Tier 1 are investigated. The aim
is to reduce the risk estimation uncertainty in
order to achieve a more accurate risk assessment.
Because of economic and time reasons it is
preferable to stop the analysis at this level,
after reaching an exhaustive estimation of the
investigated risks.
TIER 3 highest degree of investigation. In this
level it is possible to analyse site-specific
aspects of particular interest for which the risk
estimation uncertainty cant be reduced in the
second level. This effort has to be justified by
an adequate saving of money for the site
remediation actions
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ERAMANIA-DSS MODULES FOR THE SITE-SPECIFIC
RISK ASSESSMENT

• MODULE 1 Comparative Tests Tables
• including ecotoxicological, ecological and
  chemical (bioavailability) tests (e.g., lines of
  evidence) and integrating discriminant,
  descriptive and comparative attributes, in order
  to select the most suitable set of tests for the
  case study
• MODULE 2 Integrated Ecological Risk Indices
• aggregating the different lines of evidence
  results and based on the Multicriterial Analysis
  tools in order to
• - derive integrated ecological risk indexes which
  are able to characterise different risk
  scenarios and support the definition of suitable
  remediation and monitoring plan
• - provide a pragmatic reduction of conceptual
  uncertainties

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MODULE 1 COMPARATIVE TESTS TABLES
The problem
How to choose the most suitable set of tests to
be applied at each TRIAD tier?
Useful criteria

• Financial budget
• Available time
• Test characteristics (repeatability,
  standardization)
• Ecological relevance of the provided response
• Site-specificity (tested organism, medium)

Critical issues Multiple information, expert
subjectivity, specific relevance in each TRIAD
tier,
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MODULE 1 COMPARATIVE TESTS TABLES
The solution
A Multi Criteria Analysis-based decision support
tool that drives the experts in quantitatively
handling the multiple criteria

• Test discrimination through discriminant
  attributes used to make a preliminary choice of
  the tests, excluding which are not applicable to
  the case study
• Test description through descriptive attributes
  used to present the major tests characteristics
  and methodologies
• TRIAD level assignation through comparative
  attributes characterizing the specific relevance
  of each test for each of the TRIAD tier
• Test comparison through comparative attributes
  which allow to integrate expert judgments and to
  compare the tests characteristics
• Test ranking through the calculation of three
  tier-specific scores for each test
• Test selection on the basis of the calculated
  scores

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MODULE 2 INTEGRATED ECOLOGICAL RISK INDEXES
The problem
How to integrate the test results in order to
assess the risk for the ecosystem?
What to take into account

• Response range of each test defining the
  threshold of natural variability and the levels
  of impairment to allow the comparison among the
  evidences of effect highlighted by different
  tests
• Different unit measurements normalizing the
  results into a common scale
• Ability of the test to provide information at
  ecosystem level identifying the relationships
  between the tested organisms and both ecosystem
  biodiversity and functional diversity

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MODULE 2 INTEGRATED ECOLOGICAL RISK INDEXES
The solution
Multi Criteria Analysis-based decision support
tools that help the experts/decision makers in
quantitatively and qualitatively evaluating the
risk posed by the contaminants

• Impairment analysis expert evaluation of the
  impairment level highlighted by each Line of
  Evidence (LoE) result, supported by
  multi-criteria analysis tools
• Integrated Effect Index (IEI) calculation
  quantitative integration of the evaluations
  provided by the impairment analysis
• Ecosystem impairment evaluation qualitative
  assessment of the evaluations provided by the
  impairment analysis, taken into account both
  ecosystem biodiversity and functional diversity
  by the means of the Ecosystem Impairment Matrix
  (EcoIM)
• Bioavailability evaluation qualitative
  evaluation of the LoE belonging to the
  bioavailability process within the chemical
  TRIAD leg through the Bioavailability Evidence
  Table (BET)

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MODULE 1 COMPARATIVE TESTS TABLES
Software implementation
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Issues for the general discussion on Common
European References
Screening European based ecotoxicological
database ? to avoid reference to
extra-European living targets Site-specific
validation of ERA-MANIA DSS Module 1 at European
scale by comparing available tests for ERA ?
review of test suitable for each tier
Site-specific, ERA-MANIA DSS Module 2
extrapolation from individual test results to
the ecosystem impairment relevance ? more
expert judgment in a MCA decisional framework
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Outlooks
June 2005 Final ERA-MANIA Project Workshop
jointly organized with Liberation and Abacus EU
Projects ? all of you are kindly invited ? By
end 2005 ERA guidelines under Italian
regulatory conditions
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Research local and think European the ERA-MANIA
project
Antonio Marcomini Andrea Critto Interdepartment
al Centre IDEAS University of Venice marcom_at_unive
.it critto_at_unive.it
DG-JRC ERA Workshop Ispra, 3-4 February 2005
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