ABSTRACT
Sustainability as a decision-making criterion is increasingly gaining significance in contaminated site management. The state of the art of the development is reflected by regulations, management systems, standards, and protocols. The uniform assessment of environmental technology performance is the main component of sustainability analysis. A holistic approach is applied that evaluates the efficiencies not only from a strict technological and cost analysis perspective but also from socioeconomic and wider environmental/ecological aspects characterized by the sustainability footprint.
This chapter deals with sustainability from the perspective of environmental remediation, it gives definitions and describes the state of the art of sustainability management, the regulatory environmental technology verification (ETV) and sustainability assessment used in project implementation. The initiatives developed by experts in technology, economy, environment/ecology, and society are introduced. It shows that irrespective of the starting point many existing evaluation methods can be upgraded by sustainability indicators. “Green remediation” is very close to sustainable remediation, thus socioeconomic sustainability indicators can easily be added, similar to soil quality and function evaluation. Fully quantitative assessment methods such as cost–benefit assessment or mass balance-based evaluations can also include sustainability aspects if they are based on their cost and benefits or mass balance. Multi-criteria Analysis (MCA) can aggregate quantitative and qualitative information of various metrics.
In situ remediation attracts the greatest attention because the technology is in intimate contact with soil and groundwater which blurs the border between the negative impact of operation, emissions and disruptions to the local environment and the overall beneficial impact of the intervention on the wider environment. Another reason why in situ remediation at the center of interest is that its action is almost invisible (nothing happens on the surface), it is almost unknown and little trusted. Consequently it is not included in the operators’ repertoire regardless of its capability of saving energy and cost and at the same time, fulfilling a number of sustainability requirements.
