INSPECT : INtegration of SPatially Explicit risks of ConTaminants in Spatial Planning and Land Management : final research report

• Main Authors: Scheifler, Renaud, Fritsch, Clémentine, Bervoets, Lieven, van den Brink, Nico
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: Biology; Microtus arvalis
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10067/1016460151162165141

Abstract: The overall objective of this programme is to better integrate environmental risk assessment of contaminants into land management and spatial planning processes in order to mitigate possible risks as efficiently as possible. To reach this goal, the operational objectives of this project are to validate and extend the use of a spatially explicit decision support system (DSS) named BERISP (www.berisp.org) and to spread it within the scientific community and stakeholders involved in the study and management of contaminated sites. The first objective of the programme was to develop BERISP-DSS for a wider range of application than its initial capabilities (one case-study: the Afferdensche en Deetsche Waarden floodplain, one metal: Cd, one food web: the little owl Athene noctua). To fulfil this aim, data from previous scientific programmes and new data were collected on two different polluted sites: the Hageven-Plateaux reserve and the Metaleurop Nord area that have been contaminated by zinc and lead smelters. Three new metals (Cu, Pb, Zn) have been added in the DSS using transfer equations from data from previous and the current INSPECT programmes. Similarly, based on data from the literature and from INSPECT, two new target species (the European blackbird Turdus merula, large grazers) have been added in the DSS. Moreover, the food web of the little owl has been specified (the group of vole species undifferentiated in the first version has been divided into the common -Microtus arvalis- and the bank -Myodes glareolus- voles in the new version) and extended to take into account more species (the wood mouse Apodemus sylvaticus, undifferentiated group of beetles) that are included in the little owl diet. Data have also been collected on the common kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) to be implemented further in the DSS. Both the manual for users and the website have been updated. According to the communication plan of the programme, two presentations of the DSS were done in stakeholders meetings (one in Mechelen, ...