Preface

Abstract

It has been over 30 years since the landmark Brundtland Report introduced sustainability as the obligation of a present generation to deliver to the next a state of affairs in the environment that would allow this to prosper and enjoy a quality of life not hampered by present-day activities aiming at short-term benefits. Fundamental to striving for sustainable development is the advancement and application of environmentally responsible waste and pollution assessment methods, remediation technologies, and management systems. Assessment of pollution in a given medium (air, water, and soil) may be conducted under a wide variety of conditions and at varying scales and levels of sophistication. As a result, assessments can produce a wide range of outcomes. Problem conditions may range from simple settings with almost self-evident identification of one or two key hazards, to highly complex urban and industrial settings with diverse human activities, where the source, location, and inception of pollution can be difficult to identify. This, in many cases, is coupled with complexities in the geological, hydrogeological, geochemical, and biological site conditions, the presence and need for protection of valuable ecosystems, the potential for far-field and/or long-term health implications, and numerous other considerations that render vulnerability assessments very demanding. This broad range of complexity, uncertainty, and needs means that assessments of pollution require a range of sophisticated tools and techniques, from field surveys, say, of major sources of groundwater pollution to detailed surveys of chemical or microbiological pollutant loads, to modeling of, for example, the leaching potential of pesticides used in a catchment. This increased complexity of environmental problems has necessitated the creation of multidisciplinary groups from all fields of science, engineering, public health, economics, and social science, to work together to assess and provide answers to the multifaceted aspects and implications of environmental problems.