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SADA: Ecological Risk Based Decision Support System for Selective Remediation
Citation:
PURUCKER, S. T., R. N. Stewart, AND C. J. Welsh. SADA: Ecological Risk Based Decision Support System for Selective Remediation. Chapter 11, A. Marcomini, G.W. Suter, and A. Critto (ed.), Decision Support Systems for Risk Based Management of Contaminated Sites. Springer Science + Business Media, New York, NY, , 239-256, (2009).
Impact/Purpose:
This chapter documents the ecological risk assessment functionality of SADA with its relevant GIS and database features.
Description:
Spatial Analysis and Decision Assistance (SADA) is freeware that implements terrestrial ecological risk assessment and yields a selective remediation design using its integral geographical information system, based on ecological and risk assessment inputs. Selective remediation is a process that achieves a local- and/or site-level media concentration level protective of a defined risk level while minimizing cleanup volume. Implementation requires inputs of contaminant analytical data, a model of the spatial distribution of contamination, and ecological exposure information and models, along with decision-maker cleanup criteria and spatial scale definition. The resulting remedial design is spatially-explicit and optimal for the inputs and decision objectives. A brief application illustrates the specification of an area of concern for short-tailed shrews (Blarina carolinensis) exposed to a polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) contaminated site in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Toxicologically-based cleanup criteria were applied to determine a spatially explicit remedial design that reduced shrew exposures to protective levels.