Introduction to the special SERRA issue on “Risks, Uncertainties and the Environment”

Risks exist in every aspect of our lives. We face a great deal of risks in our living environment. Qualitative models have proven effective for managing risks in environmental contexts worldwide. This special issue of Stochastic Environmental Research & Risk Assessment (SERRA) intends to present the-state-of-the-art approaches and experiences on how to assess and manage ecological and human information on environmental and health risks. Due to the threats that go with natural disasters, Ron Hayes, the president of the Public Risk Management Association (PRIMA) stated in 2009 that they were the biggest challenge that risk managers face (McDonald 2009). Natural disasters by definition are surprises, causing a great deal of damage and inconvenience by the nature and the environment. Other key areas related to risks and environment are water pollution, ground pollution—contamination of soils, noise pollution where it impacts on neighbouring land-users, various pollutions in the landscape, waste management inappropriate waste disposal, traffic management air quality and noise quality on transport routes, etc. Environmental risks seem to create a paradox for our modern society system: on the one hand we see our life expectancy and general health improved dramatically; on the other hand, we have surprises and fears from various environmental systems. Some things we do counterproductive that could lead to unintended such as revolutions, terrorist attacks, and wars. Some things nature does to us, e.g., volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, hurricanes, and tornados (Tan and Enderwick 2006; Ranjan 2006). Water, land and air pollution is a mixture of chemical emissions, including combustion products, volatile chemicals, particulates, which all have effect on human health. More recently, the H1N1 virus has sharpened the awareness of the public and public health response systems world-wide. We have developed lowpollution, low-cost electricity through nuclear energy, but this technology has caused environmental disasters, such as at Three-Mile Island in Pennsylvania and Chernobyl in Russia. We have built massive chemical plants to produce low cost chemicals, but chemical releases such as at Bhopal, India, have caused great damage to human health and well-being. We are very pleased to see completion of this special issue of Stochastic Environmental Research & Risk Assessment (SERRA) presenting the-state-of-the-art approaches and experiences on how to assess and manage ecological and human information on environmental and health risks.