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Environmental Systems Risk Assessment and Management

Risk assessment and management of environmental systems is critical to effectively achieve a balance between utilization of natural resources, sustainable development, preservation of ecosystems, protection of human health, and insuring long-term eco-compatibility of residuals from domestic, agricultural, industrial and defense activities. As in most engineering systems, uncertainty in environmental risk assessment originates from three sources: (1) model assumptions and approximation, (2) variability and uncertainty in individual parameters, and (3) inadequacies in data (lack of information, measurement error, etc.). At Vanderbilt University, conceptual and quantitative models are being developed to assess system level uncertainty and its impact on risk management, for the following systems: