Basic concepts and approaches

As argued in Part I.1, substance-related problems — and therefore also those relating to heavy metals — can be regarded in terms of the disturbance of natural biogeochemical cycles. Analysis of the transformation of such cycles into anthropo-biogeochemical cycles requires an integrated economy-environment approach. In this respect it is important to assess human influence on the natural cycles, in order to determine the extent of the anthropogenic disturbance. Furthermore, we need to consider the ‘backfiring’ mechanisms, i.e. the influence of the artificially enlarged environmental cycles on matters valued by society, such as human health, loss of welfare and wellbeing, and species and ecosystem health. In this section, a number of concepts are discussed that form the basis of our problem analysis and the quest for solutions presented in Parts II, III and IV. We discuss the following concepts: