Comprehensive Environmental Assessment: A Meta-Assessment Approach

Powers, Christina M.; Dana, G.; Gillespie, Patricia A.; Gwinn, Maureen R.; Hendren, Christine Ogilvie; Long, Thomas; Wang, Amy; Davis, J. Michael

doi:10.1021/es3023072

Cited by 39 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…16 Although described separately here, these two aspects are intertwined in various ways, especially in that the process begins with compiling information, using the CEA framework as a guide; therefore, the framework is described first. …”

Section: What Is Cea?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Notwithstanding these questions, the idea of looking beyond immediate benefits and examining potential future impacts, including unintended consequences, seems like a reasonable objective for assessing ENMs, and CEA is clearly consistent with this goal. 16 Although CEA can be extended to evaluate sustainability, the complexities of assessing economic, social, and other dimensions in addition to environmental issues would admittedly imply a much more ambitious undertaking and has not been attempted thus far. However, to the extent that any assessment approach can evaluate sustainability, CEA would offer advantages in providing a systematic framework and collective judgment process to conduct a 'sustainability assessment'.…”

Section: Sustainabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…By providing a 'record of key facts, values, and other information cited by the participants themselves and, even more importantly, an objective measure of the participants' collective judgment of priorities, such as a rank-order list derived from a multi-voting process', 16 a CEA framework and process greatly enhance the transparency of an assessment.…”

Section: Transparencymentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

A comprehensive environmental assessment approach to engineered nanomaterials

Davis¹

2012

WIREs Nanomed Nanobiotechnol

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The anticipated benefits of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) should be weighed against their possible negative impacts. Comprehensive environmental assessment (CEA) provides a means of evaluating such trade-offs in a holistic and systematic manner. CEA consists of both a framework for organizing information and a process for using collective judgment to identify and prioritize the issues presented by ENMs. As a meta-assessment approach, CEA is designed to assist both research planners and risk managers by building on various assessment and analytic tools used by risk assessors. Given the immature state of the science for ENMs, CEA is currently being primarily used for prioritizing research directions. Therefore, highlights of case studies of selected ENM applications are presented to illustrate how CEA has been applied thus far to help guide research efforts to support future assessment efforts. In addition, CEA is discussed in relation to topical subjects, such as sustainability, transparency, and stakeholder engagement. Finally, comparisons to other life cycle-based assessment approaches directed at ENMs are noted.

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Section: What Is Cea?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Sustainabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Transparencymentioning

confidence: 99%

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A comprehensive environmental assessment approach to engineered nanomaterials

Davis¹

2012

WIREs Nanomed Nanobiotechnol

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“…The CEA approach adds several key features to the toolbox of available methods to engage stakeholders in research‐planning processes that inform future risk assessments and risk management of environmental contaminants. First, CEA uses an extensive framework (Figure ) to organize information and stakeholder thinking on a substance, material, or group of materials (e.g., nanoscale Ag, biofuels, polychlorinated biphenyls) (Davis ; Powers et al ). Second, CEA incorporates a structured collective judgment process to engage stakeholders with diverse technical expertise and organizational perspectives in prioritizing research gaps.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Applying comprehensive environmental assessment to research planning for multiwalled carbon nanotubes: Refinements to inform future stakeholder engagement

Powers

Grieger

Meacham

et al. 2015

Integr Envir Assess & Manag

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Risk assessments and risk management efforts to protect human health and the environment can benefit from early, coordinated research planning by researchers, risk assessors, and risk managers. However, approaches for engaging these and other stakeholders in research planning have not received much attention in the environmental scientific literature. The Comprehensive Environmental Assessment (CEA) approach under development by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) is a means to manage complex information and input from diverse stakeholder perspectives on research planning that will ultimately support environmental and human health decision making. The objectives of this article are to 1) describe the outcomes of applying lessons learned from previous CEA applications to planning research on engineered nanomaterial, multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and 2) discuss new insights and refinements for future efforts to engage stakeholders in research planning for risk assessment and risk management of environmental issues. Although framed in terms of MWCNTs, this discussion is intended to enhance research planning to support assessments for other environmental issues as well. Key insights for research planning include the potential benefits of 1) ensuring that participants have research, risk assessment, and risk management expertise in addition to diverse disciplinary backgrounds; 2) including an early scoping step before rounds of formal ratings; 3) using a familiar numeric scale (e.g., US dollars) versus ordinal rating scales of "importance"; 4) applying virtual communication tools to supplement face-to-face interaction between participants; and 5) refining criteria to guide development of specific, actionable research questions.

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“…One such structured approach used by the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) is Comprehensive Environmental Assessment (CEA) (Davis ; Powers et al ). We applied CEA to inform research planning for 2 types of nanomaterials: nanoscale titanium dioxide (nano‐TiO 2 ) and nanoscale silver (nano‐Ag) (USEPA ; ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transparent stakeholder engagement in practice: Lessons learned from applying comprehensive environmental assessment to research planning for nanomaterials

Powers

Hendren

Wang

et al. 2014

Integr Envir Assess & Manag

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As efforts to develop new applications of engineered nanoscale materials (ENMs) continue to grow, so too has interest in the environmental, health, and safety (EHS) implications of these materials. However, thorough evaluation and interpretation of such implications could require substantial resources (e.g., estimated as >$120 million per year in federal funding [2013][2014][2015][2016][2017]. A structured, strategic approach for transparently planning research would support improved linkages between ENM research and risk assessments, and thereby enhance the utility of financial and other resources for EHS studies of ENMs. For this reason, we applied Comprehensive Environmental Assessment (CEA) as an approach to provide transparent input into research planning for 2 types of ENMs: nanoscale titanium dioxide and nanoscale silver. For each of these CEA applications, we employed a collective judgment method known as Nominal Group Technique (NGT) in 2 workshops sponsored by the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). The objective of this paper is to present the outcomes of these CEA applications in the context of how our methodology can inform future efforts to identify collective goals in science (e.g., research priorities) through structured decision support approaches. Outcomes include clear lists of research priorities for each ENM developed through transparently engaging stakeholders having diverse technical and sector perspectives. In addition, we identified several procedural aspects that could be refined, including emphasizing breakout group interactions, identifying broad information priorities before more detailed research questions, and using rating rather than ranking prioritization methods. Beyond the research directions identified for specific ENMs, lessons learned about engaging stakeholders in research planning are expected to inform future research planning efforts for ENMs and other emerging materials across the scientific community. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2014;9999:XX-XX. © 2014 SETAC

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Comprehensive Environmental Assessment: A Meta-Assessment Approach

Cited by 39 publications

References 29 publications

A comprehensive environmental assessment approach to engineered nanomaterials

A comprehensive environmental assessment approach to engineered nanomaterials

Applying comprehensive environmental assessment to research planning for multiwalled carbon nanotubes: Refinements to inform future stakeholder engagement

Transparent stakeholder engagement in practice: Lessons learned from applying comprehensive environmental assessment to research planning for nanomaterials

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