Risk Assessment of Modern Landfill Structures in Finland
Aurinko, Hannu (2015-09-18)
Väitöskirja
Aurinko, Hannu
18.09.2015
Lappeenranta University of Technology
Acta Universitatis Lappeenrantaensis
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-265-844-9
https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-265-844-9
Tiivistelmä
The purpose of this thesis was to investigate environmental permits of landfills
with respect to the appropriateness of risk assessments focusing on contaminant
migration, structures capable to protect the environment, waste and leachate
management and existing environmental impacts of landfills. According to the
requirements, a risk assessment is always required to demonstrate compliance
with environmental protection requirements if the environmental permit decision
deviates from the set requirements. However, there is a reason to doubt that all
relevant risk factors are identified in current risk assessment practices in order to
protect people end environment.
In this dissertation, risk factors were recognized in 12 randomly selected
landfills. Based on this analysis, a structural risk assessment method was created.
The method was verified with two case examples.
Several development needs were found in the risk assessments of the
environmental permit decisions. The risk analysis equations used in the decisions
did not adequately take into account all the determining factors like waste
prospects, total risk quantification or human delineated factors. Instead of focusing on crucial factors, the landfill environmental protection capability is
simply expressed via technical factors like hydraulic conductivity.
In this thesis, it could be shown, that using adequate risk assessment
approaches the most essential environmental impacts can be taken into account by
consideration of contaminant transport mechanisms, leachate effects, and artificial
landfill structures. The developed structural risk analysing (SRA) method shows,
that landfills structures could be designed in a more cost-efficient way taking
advantage of recycled or by-products. Additionally, the research results
demonstrate that the environmental protection requirements of landfills should be
updated to correspond to the capability to protect the environment instead of the
current simplified requirements related to advective transport only.
with respect to the appropriateness of risk assessments focusing on contaminant
migration, structures capable to protect the environment, waste and leachate
management and existing environmental impacts of landfills. According to the
requirements, a risk assessment is always required to demonstrate compliance
with environmental protection requirements if the environmental permit decision
deviates from the set requirements. However, there is a reason to doubt that all
relevant risk factors are identified in current risk assessment practices in order to
protect people end environment.
In this dissertation, risk factors were recognized in 12 randomly selected
landfills. Based on this analysis, a structural risk assessment method was created.
The method was verified with two case examples.
Several development needs were found in the risk assessments of the
environmental permit decisions. The risk analysis equations used in the decisions
did not adequately take into account all the determining factors like waste
prospects, total risk quantification or human delineated factors. Instead of focusing on crucial factors, the landfill environmental protection capability is
simply expressed via technical factors like hydraulic conductivity.
In this thesis, it could be shown, that using adequate risk assessment
approaches the most essential environmental impacts can be taken into account by
consideration of contaminant transport mechanisms, leachate effects, and artificial
landfill structures. The developed structural risk analysing (SRA) method shows,
that landfills structures could be designed in a more cost-efficient way taking
advantage of recycled or by-products. Additionally, the research results
demonstrate that the environmental protection requirements of landfills should be
updated to correspond to the capability to protect the environment instead of the
current simplified requirements related to advective transport only.
Kokoelmat
- Väitöskirjat [1100]