A procedure for identifying contaminated sites in developing countries

This study has partly used the first approaches from the CONAMA National Direction. In order to complement those studies, new risk assessment procedures have been adapted for the Chilean situation. Such procedures integrate and relate the impacts on environmental goods influenced by human/industrial activities, especially considering their pathways soil, surface- and groundwaters. An important aspect considered in this evaluation is the identification of the Areas of Interest within one region, which are determined according to the vulnerability of three environmental goods (population, groundwater and wild life), as well as of a further parameter derived from the land register: the number of potentially-contaminated sites per community. This work presents the developed risk assessment procedure as an example of a simple knowledge transfer from the European experience to developing countries.