At the heart of environmental protection is risk assessment: the likelihood of pollution from accidents; the likelihood of problems from normal and abnormal operation of industrial processes; the likely impacts associated with new synthetic chemicals; and so on. Currently, risk assessment has been very much in the news--the risks from BSE and E. coli, and the public perception of risks from nuclear waste, etc. This new publication explains how scientific methodologies are used to assess risk from human activities and the resultant objects and wastes, on people and the environment. Understanding such risks supplies crucial information--to frame legislation, manage major habitats, businesses and industries, and create development programmes.

• Unique in combining the science of risk assessment with the development of management strategies.
  
• Covers science and social science (politics, economics, psychology) aspects.
  
• Very timely - risk assessment lies at the heart of decision making in various topical environmental questions (BSE, Brent Spar, nuclear waste).