Risk assessment is currently employed as a support tool for the management of contaminated sites, through a quantitative estimation of the risk for human health related to the presence of pollutants in various environmental matrixes. Our research group have contributed during the period 2005-2008 to the elaboration and successive revisions of the ISPRA document of national reference “Methodological criteria for the application of absolute risk assessment to contaminated sites”. Further investigations were later carried out, all with the aim of elaborating more realistic fate and transport models compared with those already implemented in the RBCA procedure. In this respect, groundwater fate and transport models which take into account the effects produced by the contamination source depletion were developed, as well as vapour intrusion models which consider vapour attenuation due to biodegradation processes. The experience gathered in these past years has finally brought to the development of a new risk analysis software “Risk-net” (available freely on www.reconnet.net) which allows the integral application of the ISPRA procedure (2008). Lastly, recently, our research group has begun a series of research activities aimed at the evaluation of the quality of sediments.

Collaborations

University of Adelaide (Australia); INAIL; ISPRA.