Guidelines for Environmental Risk Assessment and Management
[This document refers, in a number of instances, to the then Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR). The text of this document has not been updated since the transfer of environmental protection functions to Defra.]
Joint with the Environment Agency
and the Institute for Environment and Health
In 1995 the publication of A Guide to Risk Assessment and Risk Management for Environmental Protection represented one of the first attempts to explore some of the underlying principles of assessing environmental risk. This revision, Guidelines for Environmental Risk Assessment and Management, emphasises the establishment of risk assessment, risk management and risk communication as essential elements of structured decision-making processes across Government, and provides an over-arching framework for the development of functional risk assessment guidance.
Foreword from the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions
Foreword from the Environment Agency
Chapter 1
Introduction to the guidelines
1.1 Background
1.2 Purpose
1.3 Scope
1.4 The framework
1.5 Environmental risk management and sustainable development
1.6 Risk management and the precautionary principle
1.7 Justifying an intention
1.8 Further information
Chapter 2
A framework for environmental risk assessment and management
2.1 An overall framework
2.2 Key stages in each tier of environmental risk assessment
2.3 Options appraisal
Chapter 3
The social aspects of risk
3.1 Background
3.2 Why consider the social dimensions of risk?
3.3 Risk perceptions
3.4 Trust and credibility
3.5 Equity
3.6 Responses to risk and the role of the media
3.7 Risk communication
3.8 Stakeholder participation
3.9 Further information
Chapter 4
Problem formulation
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Defining the intention
4.3 Justifying an intention
4.4 Setting the boundaries
4.5 The controlling factors
4.6 Developing a conceptual model
4.7 Further information
Chapter 5
Risk screening and prioritisation
5.1 Background
5.2 Why screen and prioritise?
5.3 Key criteria for risk screening
5.4 Methods for risk screening and prioritising
5.5 Prioritising effort
5.6 Further information
Chapter 6
Quantification and dealing with uncertainty
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Types of quantification
6.3 Dealing with uncertainty
6.4 Further information
Chapter 7
Evaluating the significance of a risk
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Risk estimation as a basis for risk management decisions
7.3 Factors influencing the significance of a risk
7.4 Other significant factors
7.5 Further information
Chapter 8
Options appraisal and decision-making
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Trade-off analysis: methods for decision-making
8.3 Which technique?
8.4 Iteration
8.5 Risk communication and decision-making
8.6 Further information
Chapter 9
Monitoring
9.1 Introduction
9.2 What to monitor
9.3 Designing the monitoring programme
9.4 Interpreting and dealing with monitoring data
9.5 Further information
Annex I
Case studies
A1.1 Risk assessment for the release of genetically modified sugar beet
A1.2 Risk assessment for road transport: a semi-quantitative methodology
A1.3 Risk assessment of coastal flooding: a semi-quantitative methodology
Annex II
Bibliography
Annex III
Sources of further information
Acknowledgements
The Guidelines document was written by Emma Green, Simon Short and Mark Taylor (Institute for Environment and Health (IEH)) with assistance from Peter Hinchcliffe (DETR), Gareth Llewellyn, Simon Pollard, Andrew Brookes and Jimi Irwin (Environment Agency), Paul Harrison and Linda Shuker (IEH) and other colleagues from DETR and the Environment Agency. Case studies were provided by DETR and the Environment Agency.
We would also like to acknowledge the contributions of participants in the 1997 Workshop on Guidance for Environmental Risk Assessment and Management held in London, 28 November 1997, and the members of the Task Force on Risk Assessment who met in Leicester, 6 March 1998.
Efforts were made to ensure that contact details and internet addresses listed in Annex III and elsewhere in this document were correct at the time of publication. Defra is not responsible for the contents or reliability of the listed web-sites and does not necessarily endorse the views expressed within them. Listing should not be taken as endorsement of any kind. We cannot guarantee and have no control over the availability of the listed pages.
Page published 2 August
2000;
Page last modified
19 September, 2002