The Development and Application of Guidelines for Ecological Risk Assessment in South Africa

Integrated Risk Assessment for the Blue Economy

“…Beyond the United States, ERA has been applied in a diversity of global contexts. Risk assessment guidelines have been developed by many nations for managing natural resources or at minimum ensuring safe management strategies [e.g., South Africa (Claassen et al, 2001), India (Ministry of Environment Forst and Climate Change, 2016), Philippines (Environmental Management Bureau, 2007)] and their implementation is often supported by international organizations, such as the United Nations. This highlights that although ocean-focused risk assessment may not be broadly used, elements of this process are already employed in countries across the globe, which we hope will help to enable further adoption of these processes in the context of the blue economy.…”

Bayesian Network Applications for Sustainable Holistic Water Resources Management: Modeling Opportunities for South Africa

“…Risk deals with two issues interacting: (i) probability of an adverse event occurring and (ii) the consequence of the adverse effect (Leuven & Poudevigne, 2002 ). According to the “South African Ecological Risk Assessment Guidelines,” ecological risk assessment (ERA) may be defined as “the process that evaluates the likelihood that adverse ecological effects may occur or are occurring as a result of exposure to one or more stressors” (Claassen, Strydom, Murray, & Jooste, 2001 ; Murray & Claassen, 1999 ; O'Brien & Wepener, 2012 ). ERA) determines potential impacts of stressors to specific endpoints.…”