Integration of Sustainable Risk-Based Land Management Approach into Developing Countries, Libya as a Case Study

Abstract

Land contamination is found in many countries and can cause widespread problems as chemicals (Petroleum Hydrocarbon (PHC)) or heavy metals can be easily leached into the environment. As such, adverse impacts can occur on human health, ecosystems, or soil and water resources. Also, these contaminants might cause severe problems for a national or regional economy. Therefore, several contaminated land management approaches have been developed in the past that have proven beneficial to the restoration of contaminated sites. However, not all countries have managed such progress. While contaminated site management approaches now exist in many developed countries, Libya still lacks such a management system and it is important to develop and implement an effective regulatory system in a systematic manner to improve conditions in the affected areas. In recent years, sustainability also has become an integral part of many remediation studies. The idea behind sustainable remediation (SuR) is to perform contaminated site management in a sustainable manner (i.e., a balanced outcome in terms of the environmental, social, and economic elements of sustainability) by taking into account risk-based land management, stakeholder participation, and ensure sufficient transparency in the decision-making process. In Libya, environmental problems resulting from PHC-contamination can ultimately be linked to the oil industry. Although Libya desires to solve such environmental problems in an adequate and sustainable manner, no environmental management procedure to handle contaminated sites has been put into place. Here, we propose a management approach applicable to Libya that takes into account specific local social, environmental, and economic conditions.