Risk-based remedial targets for contaminated land

Land contamination describes a general spectrum of site and soil conditions and contains areas of high levels of chemical substances which occur naturally or in brownfield sites of industrial/agricultural use. Also, land contamination may occur as a result of accidents, spillages, depositions, migrations or any other similar direct or indirect actions. The paper presents a consistent methodology to derive remedial targets based on a human health risk assessment approach incorporating a source-pathway-receptor analysis. The methodology is based on RBCA - Risk-Based Corrective Action Procedure developed in the USA and adopted in UK/EU and leads to the derivation of onsite remediation criteria, which is based on an assessment of the potential impact at the identified receptors.