Engineering Tools for Environmental Risk Management

Katalin Gruiz graduated in chemical engineering at Budapest University of Technology and Economics in 1975, received her doctorate in bioengineering and her Ph.D. in environmental engineering. Her main fields of activities are: teaching, consulting, research and development of engineering tools for risk-based environmental management, development and use of innovative technologies such as special environmental toxicity assays, integrated monitoring methods, biological and ecological remediation technologies for soils and waters, both for regulatory and engineering purposes. Prof. Gruiz has published 35 papers, 25 book chapters, more than hundred conference papers, edited 6 books and a special journal edition. She has coordinated a number of Hungarian research projects and participated in European ones. Gruiz is a member of the REACH Risk Assessment Committee of the European Chemicals Agency. She is a full time associate professor at Budapest University of Technology and Economics and heads the research group of Environmental Microbiology and Biotechnology.

Industrial, agricultural, residential land uses and the connected discharge of chemical substances cause environmental problems world-wide. This volume provides an overview on the behavior and function of the healthy environment, the capacity of the ecosystem to serve humanity and compensate for adverse changes. The prime contributors to these changes such as production and use of chemical substances, abandoned and contaminated land, chemical agriculture, mining and the complex waste problem are introduced.The focus of this book is environmental knowledge and its conscious and structured application in environmental management and decision making.

Contents1. Environmental problems in general2. Threat by chemical substances: legislation, production, use and waste3. Abandoned and Contaminated Land4. Environmental Risk of Chemical Agriculture5. Environmental Risk of Mining6. Environmental risk of waste and its management7. Efficient environmental risk management8. Management of Contaminated Land9. Site specific risk assessment and management of point and diffuse sources10. Scientific and engineering improvement of environmental risk management11, Risk management from planning to verification12. IT tools in environmental management