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| Problems to be solved |
In Europe, large areas and regions exist with a high density of industry (e.g. sea ports, large scale chemical industry complexes, metal mining areas, military complexes, etc.). In these megasites, soil and groundwater are usually polluted with
different classes of pollutants. Complete cleanup within an intermediate timeframe (25 years) is not feasible or may even be impossible for technical and economical reasons. Therefore, such megasites represent steady and long-term potential
sources of regional contamination of groundwater, surface water and sediments. Besides the threat to water quality, direct risks can be involved for ecosystems, human health, and for widespread diffuse pollution through contaminated sediment
transport in rivers. The economic impact of regional remediation problems is massive, e.g. remediation costs of large-scale projects is estimated at several billion ? per project. With the foreseen expansion of the EU with the Visegrad countries,
this becomes ever more pressing since these countries have a large number of extremely polluted megasites. The environmental issues at megasites often coincide with socio-economic barriers, which inhibit progress of economical and spatial
planning of the region. A positive impulse into the socio-economic and landscape development, in the perception of the population or users of the area, is often equally important as managing the environmental aspects. Policy development and
management instruments, which are efficient in ecological, economic and social terms, are crucial to megasite rehabilitation
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The overall objective is to produce a tool that can help environmental megasite managers in establishing an appropriate management approach for their megasites. Making use of extended scientific research work and
experiences of the past decades, a practical and cost-efficient Integrated Management System (IMS) procedure will be developed and tested at the three representative European megasites (Rotterdam/Antwerpen, Bitterfeld and Katowice) cases, which
will then be validated and evaluated. A significant part of the project is natural science based research, aimed at answering questions in support of developing megasite IMS approaches. The subjects involve risk assessment, compliance with the
water framework directives, monitored natural attenuation, immobilisation and cost-efficiency assessment.
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