Site-Specific Ecological Risk Assessment

Abstract

In many countries, soil quality is expressed in chemical concentrations as Soil Quality Standards to address the potential ecological risks in a first tier of an Ecological Risk Assessment (ERA). In cases where application of these standards do not provide satisfactory results, additional tools are required. In this chapter the focus is on these tools, i.e. ERA taking into account the complete mixture of contaminants and the integration of data from bioassays and field ecological observations according to a weight of evidence approach. A straightforward Triad framework, combining three lines of evidence, was introduced in the Netherlands in 2007 and is presented here.