Abstract
Sustainable Remediation: A New Way of Thinking the Contaminated Sites Management
Highlights
Environmental issues for a long time did not receive due attention
In view of the above considerations, this paper aims to present and analyze the characteristics and trends of the knowledge developed in the field of sustainable remediation (SR) in contaminated sites management context
The decision-making process to select the contaminated site remediation technique has traditionally focused on the cost and ease of implementation of the remediation process, on the availability and viability of the technologies, on the time needed for remediation and on the efficiency for remediation to achieve decontamination goals and compliance with existing laws (Vik et al, 2001; Pollard et al, 2004; Forum, 2009; Harclerode et al, 2015a)
Summary
Environmental issues for a long time did not receive due attention. Anthropogenic activities, such as inadequate and unregulated industrial and waste discharges, have resulted in contaminated sites around the world. These considerations are critical components in a conventional remedial options assessment, over the years practitioners and researchers have become aware that in many cases the contamination was not being destroyed but only transferred to a different environment (Adams & Reddy, 2012) This traditional remediation approach does not assess atmospheric emissions, natural resource consumption, energy use, and worker safety during the remediation process, in addition to not fully balancing the environmental, social, and economic impacts of a project, since they generally focus on “internalities” of a project (correction objectives, system performance, and local impacts) and devote minor attention to its “externalities” (impacts at local, regional, and global level) (Forum, 2009). More recently and broadly, the term “sustainable remediation” has been used to express the balanced incorporation of the “Triple Bottom Line” in the context of contaminated sites management and remediation, as shown in Fig. 1, looking beyond the focus solely on risk control, but considering the overall environmental, economic and social benefits and impacts of remediation (Hou & AlTabbaa, 2014)
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