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risk assessment — English
In a geographical and environmental sense, it is an estimate of the possibility of an undesirable event or an unexpected negative result to any action. The term is loosely applied and is used in many different sciences and senses. In the environmental field it is used to evaluate the possibility of water pollution, soil erosion, airpollution, habitat destruction, the death of animals, destruction of plants, ecological change, destruction of a wetland, and numerous other undesirable environmental results which might follow on any human activity. Risk assessment is a predictive technique and it is a very difficult thing to do in the environmental field, because it basically is a set of economic techniques that are adapted for use in the environmental field. Ecological risk assessment has become an extensively used method all over the world, including South Africa, and a comprehensive set of guidelines have been developed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of the Unites States of America. No standardised methodology exists, but a risk assessment process could be described as a process consisting of four distinct phases: hazard identification, hazard assessment, risk estimation, and risk evaluation. The most problematic aspect of any risk assessment process is probably that values must be ascribed to things which cannot be measured. There are various ways of doing that and each risk assessment process must choose the most appropriate technique. The entire process of risk assessment is to a very large extent guesswork, but an informed guess and calculated risk could be scientifically justifiable if used with caution and based on prior empirical proof or experience.
