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After management goals, the next product of the planning phase
is a characterization of the decisions that need to be made based
on the management goals and specific objectives. The planning team
often does this by defining a range of management options. The risk
assessment must gather information useful for deciding among and
pursuing those options.
Reminder! Management
goals are statements about the desired condition of ecological values
of concern, or about the ecological characteristics the public wants
to protect. They do not specify how these conditions or characteristics
will be brought about.
Management Options
Management options address how we might arrive at the desired condition.
For example, management options identified during planning for a
hazardous waste site might be:
- Clean it up.
- Pave it.
- Leave it alone.
Articulating management options provides a framework for defining
the scope, focus, and conduct of the risk assessment — a framework
that exists to predict potential risk across the specified range
of options. The assessment might be designed to determine results
directly addressing a preestablished decision criterion.
Management options can also be used to help design tiered assessments,
which we'll look at shortly.
Management Decisions
Risk managers implement decisions to achieve management goals.
Management options determine the means to achieve the end goal,
and the risk manager usually chooses from among the management options.
Examples of specific decisions might be:
- Whether or not to issue a premanufacture notice for a new chemical.
- Which cleanup plan to implement for a hazardous waste site.
- How many combined sewer overflow events to allow per year.
Could you use more practice distinguishing these important elements
from each other? Click the Activity icon below.
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Identifying Management
Options
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Relevant
guidelines section(s): 2.2.2, Text Box 2.7
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