Emerging Frameworks and Tools for Environmental Risk Assessment

Ecological risk assessment has evolved to include more holistic and inclusive dimensions as well as utilizing information on biomolecular processes and conditions as tools. This chapter explores both evolutionary directions. The former includes advances in cumulative and integrated risk assessment. Incorporation of ecosystem services into assessments is emerging as a means of connecting ecological risks to human wellbeing. And, risk assessment methodologies have been extended to increasingly diverse issues ranging from microbial systems to plastics. Biomolecular tools include the development of adverse outcome pathways (AOPs) and the use of eDNA. Risk assessors and managers will benefit from continual education about how assessments are scoped from simple examples to the most complex holistic assessments. Accreditation programs are being developed and may become a standard part of the practice in the future.