title: Coupling multi-criteria decision analysis, life-cycle assessment, and risk assessment for emerging threats.
abstract: Emerging environmental threats such as novel chemical compounds, biological agents, and nanomaterials present serious challenges to traditional models of risk analysis and regulatory risk management processes. Even a massive expansion of risk and life-cycle assessment research efforts is unlikely to keep pace with rapid technological change resulting in new and modified materials with changing properties. Therefore, it is essential to have a framework for interpreting available information in the context of high uncertainty and a strategy for prioritizing research efforts to reduce those uncertainties that are most critical. We discuss how integrating the three analytic approaches of risk assessment, life-cycle assessment, and multicriteria decision analysis into a framework permits understanding uncertainty and prioritizes needs for scientific research. Our approach is illustrated with two separate cases: nanomaterials and contaminated sediment remediation.
authors.affiliation: Environmental Laboratory, U.S. Army Research and Development Center, Concord, Massachusetts 01742, USA. igor.linkov@usace.army.mil
authors.forename: Igor
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Linkov
authors.forename: Thomas P
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Seager
mesh_terms: D003661:Decision Support Techniques; D004787:Environmental Pollution / Q000032:analysis*; D019015:Geologic Sediments / Q000737:chemistry; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012989:Soil Pollutants / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D012989:Soil Pollutants