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Technical Overview of Ecological Risk Assessment

Problem Formulation

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About Problem Formulation

Before the ecological risk assessment is conducted, risk assessors and risk managers engage in a planning dialogue to ensure that the risk assessment will enable the risk managers to make informed environmental decisions. The characteristics of the risk assessment are determined by the agreements reached by the risk managers and risk assessors during the planning dialogue. As a first step, risk assessors and risk managers consider the value of conducting a risk assessment and the possible management options for mitigating or preventing the identified problems. If a decision is made to conduct a risk assessment, key participants are identified and involved in the ecological risk assessment process. During the planning process, risk assessors and risk managers are responsible for discussing and reaching agreement on the following items:

After planning agreements are reached, the problem formulation phase begins. This phase is critical as it provides the foundation for the risk assessment. In the problem formulation phase, risk hypotheses or assumptions are generated about why ecological effects have occurred or may occur as a result of human activities. Problem formulation is an interactive and iterative process where risk managers and risk assessors perform the following tasks:

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