ICT Tools For Environmental And Human Risk Assessment

Environmental (Ecological) and Human Risk Assessment (EcoHRA) is a complex process of assessing the influence of human activities on ecosystem duality and vice versa. The endpoint of EcoHRA is a prospective or retrospective assessment of stress factors influence (chemical contaminants, anthropogenic interventions or natural disasters) on ecosystems and their parts. Monitoring and collecting of available information as the source data for EcoHRA is a key part of the process for the assessor. The availability and quality of input data determines the complexity and feasibility of the process. In the problem description phase it is possible to use the public available high-quality data from on-line web databases and web services, e.g. toxicological properties of chemicals, GIS characteristics and maps, etc. Fundamentally, the problem relates to the quality and completeness of the data inputs and to the capability of assessor to aggregate key information according to methodical requirements and given situation. Recent development of information and communication technologies provides very powerful platforms for effective processing of multiple data sources. Particularly, web searches, database systems and data mining tools oriented on key environmental components and their descriptors, regionally-specific data aggregation, mapping of exposure and segmentation of the region of interest using Geographic Information Systems technology, automated processing of laboratory tests, namely dose-response curves using eco-toxicologically relevant models, algorithms and statistical packages and probabilistic estimates of risk level and associated uncertainties and their reflection in standardization of used environmental information systems by EEA, EPA, OECD and UNEP.