1. Development of Decision Support Tools for brownfields and contaminated sites management and redevelopment [Bezama, A.; Navia, R.; Novak, J. & Lorber, K. E.] INTRODUCTION Site management stands as a complex task, as not only technical and economical considerations of each technological alternative must be studied, but also social variables, like site reuse considerations. Two different perspectives have been started to approach this subject. The first point of view is the development of an Expert System intended to stand as an optimal supporting tool for the contaminated sites management decision. The second perspective is the development of a Decision Support Model for the redevelopment of contaminated sites. This paper intends to show the contaminated sites situation in Austria and the delineation of the before mentioned management & redevelopment novel strategies. 2.- AN EXPERT SYSTEM FOR SITE MANAGEMENT In order to support the decision on the most appropriate site management procedure, a technical proposal has been prepared, consisting on the development of an Expert System that shall be able to determine the best available, optimized process for the containment and/or remediation of the site. This Expert System will take into consideration legal, technical and economic criteria, as well as the intended future use of the site [2]. 1.- THE AUSTRIAN CONTAMINATED SITES SITUATION From the ca. 80,000 suspected contaminated sites in Austria (from which 70,000 are suspected to be industrial sites), 33,549 have already been registered as brownfields. From these registered sites 163 have already been investigated, evaluated and classified. The obtained data shows that for the year 2001 ca. 48% of the registered contaminated sites presented contamination with PAHs and CHCs (Figure 1), while in 2002 ca. 42% of the 163 evaluated sites, both PAHs and CHCs were found as main pollutants [1]. CONCLUSIONS The contaminated sites problem is becoming an important issue in all European countries. Therefore, integrated site management strategies are needed to be establish. Site securing and/or remediation processes, coupled with a reasonable further reuse of these sites is going to be one of the most important future environmental tasks. The need of supporting tools for the decision on sites management by establishing a coordinated selection strategy has been stated. Although Expert Systems and Decision Support Models have been proved to work as a support tool both in the industry and in the scientific research area, there has been little application in the contaminated sites management area. For that reason the works presented in this contribution represent an interesting alternative for authorities and stakeholders involved in the decisions for site management. 3.- A DSM FOR SITE REDEVELOPMENT In order to simplify and to support works on site management cases, an electronically-supported Decision Support Model (DSM) for the evaluation of the variables of sites reuse is being developed. Such DSM has been thought as a multi-criteria based system, which comprehensibly standarizes its input values (i.e. extension of the affected area, pollutants concentration, remediation objectives, the area’s infrastructure, land market prices), through a criterion hierarchy as well as through individual (the associated enterprise) and social aims (Figure 4). As tools stand the traditional evaluation procedures (e.g. cost comparison calculation, cost benefit analysis and cost effectiveness analysis) as well as some new multidimensional evaluation procedures (e.g. multiple-goal planning), which represent the basis for the DSM. Their applicability has to be tested in each single case and has to be optimized by combining different methods or by the development of new tools [3]. Figure 4: Contaminated sites redevelopment parameters [4] Figure 1: The Austrian contaminated sites situation [1] Figure 2: Main pollutants present in Austrian contaminated sites (results from the 163 investigated sites) [1] Figure 3: The proposed Expert System The Expert System will elaborate a technical final report for the end-user, as the product of its simulation and selection process. This final report shall consist in the description of the suggested process’ characteristics (i.e. flowsheet, approximate material balance, associated costs, time extension of the selected process, final characteristics of the site’s soil and groundwater). Finally, in order to assess the technology selection process, the description of the second and third best alternatives will be presented in a short format as appendices of the final report. Department of Sustainable Waste Management and Technology Mining University of Leoben Peter-Tunner Strasse 15 www.unileoben.ac.at/iae 8700 Leoben, AUSTRIA Certified with ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 Certified Laboratory according to ISO EN 17025 REFERENCES [1] FEA - Austria (Austrian Federal Environmental Agency) (2003), “Umweltsituation in Österreich – Altlasten”,. [2] Bezama, A., Lorber, K.E., Novak, J. & Navia, R. (2003): “An Expert System for the Selection Of an Optimised Alternative for the Management of PAH/CHC Contaminated Sites: Definitions and Future Expectations”. In: Proceedings of the IX Symposium for Waste Management and Landfills, Sardinia 2003. [3] Novak, J. (2002), “Bewertung von Altlasten und Altstandorten unter Anwendung eines Decision Suport Models”, BHM, 147. Jg., 10, 300-303. [4] Bezama, A., Navia, R., Novak, J. &Lorber, K.E. (2003): “Novel approaches for the management and redevelopment of contaminated sites”, Submitted.