IMS functionality
The Integrated Management Strategy (IMS) is a tool to help technical experts and environmental managers to establish remediation and management plans at megasites.
The IMS is based on five major pathways: "Strategies", "Manual", "Examples", "Tools" and "Questions".
- In the "Strategies"-section, basic strategies of the IMS are described.
- The "Manual" is the actual core of the IMS; it is based on the IMS guidelines. All necessary information needed to apply the risk-based approach at a megasite is explained and illustrated in steps.
- In "Examples", it can be followed how each IMS step was carried out at four megasites in Europe; The Rotterdam harbour in the Netherlands; the Antwerp harbour in Belgium; the Bitterfeld area in Germany and the Tarnowskie Góry area in Poland. This information about experiences and problems encountered at the megasites is unique and has a great added value for every stakeholder involved in megasite management.
* In "Tools" the documentation and supportive tools, needed to carry out the tasks mentioned in the guidelines, are given to the user. Some of the tools were developed within the WELCOME project itself, some resulted from other EU projects.
* In "Questions", frequently asked questions about megasites, stakeholders, starting the IMS and management are answered.
In addition to this, the IMS has three supportive chapters:
- "Welcome Overview", the current chapter, this is the introduction text for the IMS, the scope of the Welcome project, and other supportive pieces of information.
- The "Glossary", in this glossary all definitions are given, that also can be found at some places next to the texts in the right column.
- In "About", the contact data of the whole Welcome team, including the end users (representatives of industries and regulators), are given as well as all deliverables from the Welcome project.
A short user guide of the IMS can be downloaded here.
The IMS team
The IMS was constructed by the Welcome consortium, which finalized the project in December 2004. The welcome team will remain active in assisting new IMS users in the application. If you are interested in advisory support for your own megasite, please send an email to info@euwelcome.nl. The welcome team will contact you subsequently.
Webmaster
This site was developed by Jurand Bien, who was at the time affiliated with the Research Centre On Soil, Sediment, and Groundwater Quality Management, which is a partnership of Wageningen University and TNO (The Netherlands).
The centre was not a member of the Welcome team but nevertheless worked together with the team and made large contributions to the IMS.
The contact data is given in the About section as well.
Links to other E.U. projects
More Framework projects can be searched on the EUGRIS portal
Disclaimer
Application of this strategy and the use of the manual and the tools in a specific situation should be done by expert professionals. Any advice, plan, or application of methods or tools from this IMS should be done in a customized way, taking the local circumstances into account. The members of the IMS team* of the Welcome consortium accept no liability for the use and applicability for a specific use of this knowledge and software by any third party.
[*] The IMS team consists of:
- TNO Institute of Energy, Environment and Process Innovation, The Netherlands,
- Grossmann Ingenieur Consult (GICON), Germany,
- Institute for Ecology of Industrial Areas (IETU), Poland,
- Centre for environmental Research Leipzig-Halle (UFZ), Germany,
- Flemish Organisation for Technology Research (VITO), Belgium,
- University Tübingen, Germany,
- Wageningen University, The Netherlands,
- Regional Agency for Site Decontamination of Sachsen-Anhalt (LAF), Germany,
- Mid-Germany Remediation company (MDSE), Germany,
- Quadriga, Germany,
- Network Organisation for Quality of Environment (NOK), The Netherlands,
- Technical University of Czestochowa, Poland,
- Rotterdam Municipal Port Management, The Netherlands.