Sustainable urban land management involves innovative methods of construction and facilities management coupled with resource efficient and effective mitigation of legacy issues such as old structures and foundations or soil and groundwater contamination. Land contamination is a legacy of historic industrial processes and waste disposal activities. It is both economically and ecologically unnecessary to remove all historic contamination. Instead an approach based on the assessment of the risks posed by such contamination and mitigation of unacceptable risks is becoming internationally accepted. Technologies to assist in ground characterisation and soil and groundwater remediation have been developed notably in the USA, Germany, Netherlands and UK. Mature policies and standards have been in place for both ongoing and new land uses in Western Europe, North America and Australia.
Feel free to pass this onto any colleagues who are IAEG members who you think might be interested. I have defined membership as being those who have joined the commission’s email listserv – see below for how to join. Current membership is drawn from the UK, other parts of Europe, and North & South America. We would welcome colleagues from these and other parts of the world to join us in sharing experiences and information.
Most of the work of the commission will be done remotely via email and collaborative working on draft documents (probably using GoogleDocs) and reporting progress (and some interim results) in New Zealand in 2010 with a view to publishing any final outcomes in the IAEG Bulletin.
Equally feel free to pass this onto any colleagues who are IAEG members who you think might be interested.