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Soil, Sediment & Sludge Treatment Technologies | Groundwater, Surface Water & Leachate Treatment Technologies
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About the tool

What is the remediation decision support tool?

This is a facility to assist in the transparent decision making process of remediation technologies for contaminated lands and waters. It is an evolving process and as information becomes available the tool is refined accordingly. New technologies and reported successes and failures enable the process to be moderated and evaluated accordingly.

Who should make use of the tool?

The tool should be available to the full remediation community. This has evolved from a spreadsheet predefined package into an interactive expert system. But this must evolve as lessons are learned. Scorings and values that underpin the system ought to be subjectively analysed in light f new findings. New technologies can be integrated as they are found and most importantly there must be a link back to best practices. It is expected that those using the system will have an operational and working knowledge of the industry and market. It should be noted though that the University of Aberdeen offer an array of continuing professional development training in this area and are able to support the needs and requirements of end-users.

The users include:

Environmental practitioners - to assess the nature and constraints of existing technologies
Remediation consultants - to assess the markets
Environmental consultants- to be aware of potential strategies
Industry - to evaluate the suitability of prescribed techniques to those that are available
Analytical houses- to assess the nature of the needs for chemical analysis
Regulators - to challenge the options that are available for remedial activities and a comparison of their likely performance
Academics - those involved in developing and applying technologies
Students - those learning the skills and the nature of the industry

The underlying components

Developing the system was a genuine challenge. It was required that the system could evolve and be flexible and therefore it is not hierarchical. Instead, the process has been spit into three components and in some cases these components are then further divided. The components are referred to as Tiers. We have decided that because the science is never clear-cut then the relative performance of different approaches ought to be considered. This underpins the transparency of the system.

Tier 1 - This is an overview. It places together all of the decision stages from site overview, through investigation, assessment and interpretation through to remediation. This places each of the steps and the need for information in context.

Tier 2 - This is a relative comparison of the techniques available and it evaluates the regulatory roles, the likelihood of meeting the target, the set-up costs and those for operational and maintenance, the availability and access to the technology and finally the environmental appropriateness of the procedure.

Tier 3 - This stage is in the infancy but it is the support process for reaching the decision stages and enabling a design to be formulated. The first focus has been on the use of on site ex situ bioremediation a process that has been sponsored by the PROMISE project. Key to the Phase 3 has been the ability to test the system against genuine environmental data and to design the issues to reflect this. No small challenge.

Contact: Cruickshank Building · St. Machar Drive · University of Aberdeen · Aberdeen · AB24 3UU
Telephone Tel: 01224 272257 · Fax: 01224 272703 · Email: g.i.paton@abdn.ac.uk