Contaminated soil risk assessment methods overview

Abstract

Soil represents the upper part of the lithosphere, characterized by complex interdependencies, which plays a
major structural and environmental role. Soil contamination can be perceived as the presence of man induced
substances within a soil environment and represents one of our century’s major environmental issues. Assessing
the consequences and the related risks of soil contamination has been the subject of debates between policymakers
all around the globe. The direct result was an impressive number of risk assessment methods, based on
different approaches, using multiple parameters and relating to various reference systems.
The present paper aims at reviewing the risk assessment descriptions within the most important countries in terms
of risk assessment policy making. Analysis parameters such as United Kingdom, Norway, France, Germany,
USA, Australia and New Zeeland are also discussed.
The main objective of the current research is to identify key elements that are present in all risk assessment
methods and to investigate the possibility of a word-wide harmonized approach. This comprehensive overview
outlines the most recent updates in terms of risk assessment and may be further used as a starting point when analyzing risks related to a contaminated site.