Development and Deployment of a Framework to Prioritize Environmental Contamination Issues

Nicholas D. Kim, Matthew D. Taylor, Jonathan Caldwell, Andrew Rumsby, Olivier Champeau and Louis A. Tremblay
Additional contact information
Nicholas D. Kim: School of Health Sciences, Massey University Wellington, P.O. Box 756, Wellington 6140, New Zealand
Matthew D. Taylor: Waikato Regional Council, P.O. Box 4010, Hamilton East, Hamilton 3247, New Zealand
Jonathan Caldwell: Waikato Regional Council, P.O. Box 4010, Hamilton East, Hamilton 3247, New Zealand
Andrew Rumsby: EHS Support, PO Box 15887, New Lynn, Auckland 0640, New Zealand
Olivier Champeau: Cawthron Institute, Private Bag 2, Nelson 7042, New Zealand
Louis A. Tremblay: Cawthron Institute, Private Bag 2, Nelson 7042, New Zealand

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 22, 1-23

Abstract: Management and regulatory agencies face a wide range of environmental issues globally. The challenge is to identify and select the issues to assist the allocation of research and policy resources to achieve maximum environmental gain. A framework was developed to prioritize environmental contamination issues in a sustainable management policy context using a nine-factor ranking model to rank the significance of diffuse sources of stressors. It focuses on contamination issues that involve large geographic scales (e.g., all pastoral soils), significant population exposures (e.g., urban air quality), and multiple outputs from same source on receiving environmental compartments comprising air, surface water, groundwater, and sediment. Factor scores are allocated using a scoring scale and weighted following defined rules. Results are ranked enabling the rational comparison of dissimilar and complex issues. Advantages of this model include flexibility, transparency, ability to prioritize new issues as they arise, and ability to identify which issues are comparatively trivial and which present a more serious challenge to sustainability policy goals. This model integrates well as a planning tool and has been used to inform regional policy development.

Keywords: diffuse contamination; environmental management; priority ranking; local government; air pollution; stormwater; anthropogenic stressors; agricultural runoff; New Zealand; geothermal (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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