Application and Scope of an ERA

Risk assessment, in general, forms the basis of the insurance industry. ERA is
amply applied by the chemical and pharmaceutical industry to study risks from
production, consumption and disposal of synthetic chemicals. Thus, most of its concepts,
methodological framework and terminologies are derived from risk assessment of
chemical release to the environment. However, the virtues of ERA are now being applied
to other effects caused by "non-chemical" risks such as physical disturbances and
biological agents.
The use of formal risk assessment process in urban environmental management is
advantageous for the following reasons:

ERA quantifies the comparison and prioritization of risks;

ERA provides an informed, scientific basis for cost-benefit analyses;

ERA considers uncertainties, thus making the assessment more credible;

ERA distinguishes the scientific process of risk assessment from the value-laden
selection of risk management measures

In its expanded form, ERA may be conducted for any activity or condition that will
likely cause a harmful consequence. Several ERA conceptual and methodological
frameworks arose from the wider practice of ERA, including a proposal for an ERA for
developing countries (Claudio, 1988; Smith et al., 1988)

ERA may take several forms depending on the questions asked or the issues
raised by the risk managers, the stakeholders and the risk assessors (see Table 1). Three
broad applications of ERA are chemical evaluations, site assessments and natural
resource assessments.

Table 1
Questions/Issues for ERA Scoping
Level of Analysis

Macro, systems, national or regional?

System Boundaries

Routine release and/or accidents?

Which population?

Which parts of the flow cycle?

Which geographic boundaries for each?

Which phases of the project?

Effects for how long in the future?

Which health endpoints?

Which ecosystem risk endpoints?

Which parts of the causal chain?

Interaction with other projects, existing or planned?

Which risk indicators?

Which methods of exposure determination?

Which environmental concentrations will be used?

Which final risk measures?

Which confidence levels?

Risk Expressions

An example of a chemical evaluation is to estimate the risk of release of toxic

chemicals such as dioxim and furans from an incinerator to the atmosphere, agricultural
farms and the local population, or in comparing land filling versus incineration as waste
management options. ERA can also be used in selecting a disinfection method for
drinking water as against the risk of generating and ingesting chlorinated organic
chemicals. ERA can facilitate site assessments, such as site selection for a petrochemical
industrial park or a nuclear power plant.
ERA can be used also in natural resource assessment. Two ERA approaches were
used recently to assess a regional marine resource system: the Retrospective Approach
and the Prospective Approach. This case is further described in a later section of this
paper. The Retrospective Approach provides the factual basis for the Prospective

Approach and in turn the Prospective Approach explains findings established by the
Retrospective Approach. The Retrospective Approach is also compared to Forensic
Ecology and not considered by some as true risk assessment.
As may be inferred from these examples, geographic and thematic scopes of ERA
can range from micro-ERA (wherein a single pollutant is the agent and the workers as
well as local residents are receptors) and to a macro-ERA involving many risk sources
spanning national and international scales which can be called cumulative risk
assessment.