Environmental risk assessment of water quality in harbor areas: A new methodology applied to European ports

•An environmental risk assessment (ERA) is proposed to manage water quality in ports.•The spatio-temporal variability of several agents and receptors is considered.•The ERA procedure is performed at a contaminant source level.•The ERA procedure allows to hierarchically define management strategies.•The ERA procedure is validated by its application to six European harbors.

This work presents a standard and unified procedure for assessment of environmental risks at the contaminant source level in port aquatic systems. Using this method, port managers and local authorities will be able to hierarchically classify environmental hazards and proceed with the most suitable management actions. This procedure combines rigorously selected parameters and indicators to estimate the environmental risk of each contaminant source based on its probability, consequences and vulnerability. The spatio-temporal variability of multiple stressors (agents) and receptors (endpoints) is taken into account to provide accurate estimations for application of precisely defined measures. The developed methodology is tested on a wide range of different scenarios via application in six European ports. The validation process confirms its usefulness, versatility and adaptability as a management tool for port water quality in Europe and worldwide.

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