Risk Management (WP5)
Leader WP5: Dietmar Müller; UBA, Austria
Objectives
- Identification of societal values and policy interactions regarding land and water resource management
- Analysis of the current situation and development of new perspectives for integrated concepts to manage various physical risks to the soil/water/sediment-system at larger scales (from regional to supranational)
- Categorisation of risk management approaches and elements to relevant phenomena and degradation causes
Description of work
The work will be divided into:
- (i) providing structured information on risk management 'upstream' to WP 3 and WP 4 at the beginning of the project and
- (ii) reviewing and structuring the specific results of these WP's at the end of the project as basic input for the Overall synthesis (WP 1c).
At the beginning of the project the major task is to provide a systematic overview on how the societal system understands the physical system and reacts by different means of risk management, preventive approaches and policies.
Risk management is a permanent process and interaction of the societal system to the physical system, embedded in a wider context of socio-economic aspects. A systematic approach and understanding of political culture, institutional arrangements concerning risks, stakeholder involvement, risk perception, risk communication and the incorporation of societal values in risk management systems are prerequisite for the work and the discussion within WP 3, WP 4 and the river basin cases of WP 1b.
Furthermore an analysis of current EU-policies as well as of the midterm development perspectives of policies will be prepared and discussed at the initial WP 5 workshop. The outcomes of the workshop will be a basis for the river-basin workshops (WP1b), the 1st WP 4 workshop (current risk assessment methodologies) and the 2nd WP 3 workshop (Implementation plan for WP 3 approach).
At the second half of the project the results reflecting the state-of-the-art in current knowledge on the water-soil-sediment-system as the physical system will have to be adopted and transformed back to the societal system and policies. The concept of 'risk' and 'risk based management' will be adopted starting from contamination to all relevant degradation causes and their interdependencies.
Corresponding to the available information on risk assessment methodologies a classification of risks to the water-soil-sediment-system will be done to separate risk problems referring to complexity and uncertainty. Options for preventive approaches and possible risk management options will be identified systematically and interactive to experts and stakeholders. Recommendations and options how to develop integrated European soil and water policies by risk management towards sustainability are the final target of the 2nd workshop.
WP5 will organise the following three events:
- 1st workshop: Risk management, the interaction of the societal system and the European policy Framework for Land and Water Resource Management
- 2nd workshop: Integrated characterisation of environmental risks to the water/soil/sediment-system, preventive approaches and options to introduce refined risk management strategies to future policies
- writing meeting: Overall WP 5 outcome synthesis in a meeting with selected WP core-team members, stakeholders and policy representatives aiming at summarising the essentials to be included in the RISKBASE scientific book