CREATING SUSTAINABILITY THROUGH APPLICATION OF AIR, SOIL, AND WATER CONTAMINANT RISK FACTORS AND GEOLOGIC VULNERABILITY ANALYSIS

摘要

In many urban locations a basic understanding of the near-surface geologic environment andcontaminant behavior is lacking. This lack of basic scientific information contributes to poorperformance in managing and creating a sustainable urban environment. To help overcome thisdeficiency, a geological vulnerability analysis was performed within the highly urbanized Rouge Riverwatershed located in southeastern Michigan, USA. This analysis was conducted using the subjectiverating method and the final product was a geologic vulnerability map. This vulnerability map is thencombined with Contaminant Risk Factors (CRFs) for air, soil, and water developed to quantify the risksposed by specific contaminants when they are released into the environment. The three parameters usedto derive the CRFs for each chemical included their toxicity, mobility, and persistence. The resultsindicate that the combination of vulnerability analysis and CRFs is able to explain a significant amountof the variance attributed to the synergistic effect resulting from the release of certain chemicals intospecific near-surface geological environments. Moreover, this method can be employed within anyurban area of the world to assess and prioritize development or re-development in a sustainable manner.