ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the discussion squarely into the realm of technology as applied to environmental problem solving. Techniques estimating both human and nonhuman risk are described together using the reasonable approach developed for the US Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act assessment process. The chapter focuses on the expression of risk as a probability of some adverse consequence occurring to an exposed human or ecological entity. A risk assessment is carried out by a risk assessor, a person or group of people “who actually organizes and analyses site data, develops exposure and risk calculations, and prepares a risk assessment report”. Risk assessment is technical support for decision making under uncertainty. It is based on the realization, dating to the seventeenth century, that, although the future is unpredictable, one can estimate the likelihood of alternative outcomes of an action.
