ABSTRACT
Assessm ent endp oints are a n explicit express ion of the environm ental values to be pro tected,
operati onally defined as an ecologi cal entity an d its attribu tes (Suter 1989; EPA 1992a). The
concep t of assessment endp oints is sim ilar to other co ncepts but the distinct ions are import-
ant (Box 16.1). The process of selec ting asses sment endpo ints can be thoug ht of as a process
for convert ing the risk manager ’s environm en tal goals into specif ic attr ibutes of real en tities,
which c an be estimat ed by measur ement or mod eling. This selec tion may be difficul t or
content ious becau se the numbe r of ecologi cal entities and attr ibutes is effe ctively infi nite.
