Environnement, Risques & Santé
MENUEcological risk assessment (ERA): Towards a European harmonization of methods and tools Volume 8, issue 2, mars-avril 2009
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- Key words: ecosystem, risk, ecotoxicology, methods, ecology
- DOI : 10.1684/ers.2009.0234
- Page(s) : 137-47
- Published in: 2009
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.