title: The rationale for simple approaches for sustainability assessment and management in contaminated land practice.
abstract: The scale of land-contamination problems, and of the responses to them, makes achieving sustainability in contaminated land remediation an important objective. The Sustainable Remediation Forum in the UK (SuRF-UK) was established in 2007 to support more sustainable remediation practice in the UK. The current international interest in 'sustainable remediation' has achieved a fairly rapid consensus on concepts, descriptions and definitions for sustainable remediation, which are now being incorporated into an ISO standard. However the sustainability assessment methods being used remain diverse with a range of (mainly) semi-quantitative and quantitative approaches and tools developed, or in development. Sustainability assessment is site specific and subjective. It depends on the inclusion of a wide range of considerations across different stakeholder perspectives. Taking a tiered approach to sustainability assessment offers important advantages, starting from a qualitative assessment and moving through to semi-quantitative and quantitative assessments on an 'as required' basis only. It is also clear that there are a number of 'easy wins' that could improve performance against sustainability criteria right across the site management process. SuRF-UK has provided a checklist of 'sustainable management practices' that describes some of these. This paper provides the rationale for, and an outline of, and recently published SuRF-UK guidance on preparing for and framing sustainability assessments; carrying out qualitative sustainability assessment; and simple good management practices to improve sustainability across contaminated land management activities.
authors.affiliation: r(3) environmental technology UK Ltd, University of Reading Whiteknights Campus, Reading, UK; School of Environment and Technology, University of Brighton, Brighton, UK. Electronic address: paul@r3environmental.co.uk.
authors.forename: R Paul
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Bardos
authors.affiliation: Bone Environmental Consultant Ltd., Mickleton, Chipping Campden, UK. Electronic address: brian.bdbone@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Brian D
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Bone
authors.affiliation: Homes and Communities Agency, Rivergate, Temple Quay, Bristol, UK. Electronic address: Richard.Boyle@hca.gsi.gov.uk.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Boyle
authors.affiliation: National Grid Property, National Grid House, Warwick Technology Park, Gallows Hill, Warwick CV34 6DA, UK. Electronic address: Frank.Evans@nationalgrid.com.
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Evans
authors.affiliation: CL:AIRE, 32 Bloomsbury Street, London WC1B 3QJ, UK. Electronic address: nicola.harries@claire.co.uk.
authors.forename: Nicola D
authors.initials: ND
authors.lastname: Harries
authors.affiliation: Environment Agency, Horizon House, Deanery Road, Bristol BS1 5AH, UK. Electronic address: trevor.howard@environment-agency.gov.uk.
authors.forename: Trevor
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Howard
authors.affiliation: Shell Global Solutions (UK) Ltd, Lange Kleiweg 40, 2288 GK Rijswijk, The Netherlands; Groundwater Protection & Restoration Group, University of Sheffield, Kroto Research Institute, Sheffield, UK. Electronic address: Jonathan.W.Smith@shell.com.
authors.forename: Jonathan W N
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Smith
mesh_terms: D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000379:methods*; D052918:Environmental Restoration and Remediation / Q000592:standards*; D006113:United Kingdom
keywords: Contaminated land management; Option appraisal; Remediation; SuRF-UK; Sustainability assessment; Sustainable remediation