A Ranking Approach to Multiple Stressor, Wide-Area Ecological Risk Assessment

7 A Ranking Approach to Multiple Stressor, Wide-Area Ecological Risk Assessment 

Group of Stressors Group of Receptors Group of Responses 

Comparison of risk components applied at the traditional and regional levels. At the regional level, the source releases the stressor to the habitat. The habitat is explicitly and spatially defined within the region. If one of the organisms that constitutes an assessment endpoint or other ecological properties of concern exists within that habitat, then an impact can occur (After Landis, W.G. and J.A. Wiegers. 1997. Hum. Ecol. Risk Assess. 3 287-297). 

The proposed approach for a regional assessment is to evaluate the risk components at different locations in the region, rank the importance of these locations, and combine this information to predict the relative risk among these areas. The number of possible combinations that can result from this 

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