Addressing Climate Change Impacts and Resiliency in Contaminated Site Remediation

Abstract

Climate change impacts and its resulting vulnerabilities are perhaps one of the most important and yet the most poorly understood issues in the world today. The contaminated sites, specifically those located by coastal and equatorial regions, are at great risk in facing the impacts of climate change and extreme weather events, since they are not designed considering those in mind. The climate change impacts that specifically affect site remediation may include sea-level rise, extreme temperatures, extreme precipitation, extreme wind, and wildfires. While the efforts toward incorporating sustainability in terms of the assessment of net environmental, economic, and social impacts and benefits in remediation design and implementation is increasing, the remediation approach must incorporate climate change resilience into planning, design, execution, operation, and maintenance of the remediation strategy. There are a few frameworks published in literature that address the incorporation of resiliency and climate change adaptation in contaminated site remediation design. This study presents an overview of some of these frameworks in the context of the United States and its current status quo regarding the environmental remediation to aid in resilient design of remediation strategies for the cleanup of contaminated sites. Further, a new quantitative approach to decision-making involving quantitative life cycle sustainability assessment and quantification of uncertainty in evaluating the feasibility of climate change adaptation measures for site-specific remedial designs is discussed. A few case studies demonstrating the current practice of resiliency in remediation design are discussed. Finally, challenges to assess and implement sustainable and resilient remediation are discussed.