JLE

Environnement, Risques & Santé

MENU

Ecological risk assessment (ERA): Towards a European harmonization of methods and tools Volume 8, issue 2, mars-avril 2009

Figures

See all figures

Authors
Institut lillois d’ingénierie de la santé Université Lille Nord de France 42, rue Ambroise-Paré 59120 de Loos France, Département de botanique Faculté des sciences pharmaceutiques et biologiques EA 2690 Université de Lille Nord de France 3, rue du Professeur-Laguesse BP 83 59006 Lille cedex France, Réseau coopératif de recherche sur les déchets « RECORD » Bâtiment CEI Boulevard du 11-Novembre-1918 BP 2132 69603 Villeurbanne France

Several research programs are currently working on methods and tools for ecological risk assessments (ERA), to improve and harmonize European procedures. Our scientific work has focused on the comparative analysis of nine international methodologies, and our results show that they have a common composition. Harmonization thus seems possible. Nevertheless, some differences can engender variability in risk calculations and create difficulties in adapting methods to the particular legal and environmental context. These results led us to begin an analysis of tools and methods that might be able to overcome these difficulties. It is based on a critical analysis of how ecology, especially field ecology, is taken into account by the ERA methods we studied.