Environmental assessment in regional development with reference to the atmospheric environment of the hunter valley

This chapter focuses on risk assessment framework that offers a methodology which enables the environmental standards approach to be used in conjunction with suitable forms of Benefit Analysis. The advantages of this approach lie in the nature of standards. Standards are objective, are based on scientific analyses which aim to establish a threshold designed primarily to protect public health, and secondarily to protect public welfare, and are reassessed as additional evidence becomes available. The chapter elucidates the characteristics of the proposed modelling methodology and considers its advantages. It discusses the unsuitability of deterministic modelling and corroborated with two examples which are fairly representative of the treatment given modelling in many environmental impact statements. Mechanistic modelling work should continue on ill-defined systems to improve gradually, at least to a limit point, their level of definition. After all, this type of modelling helps the physical understanding of systems and ultimately provides valuable information to the specific statistical modeller.