PhD Defense | Federica Panzarella | A Community Capitals Framework Approach to Sustainable Site Remediation

A Community Capitals Framework Approach to Sustainable Site Remediation

Over the past decades, the social dimensions of environmental management have gained increasing importance, leading to the establishment of numerous initiatives and actions aimed at applying sustainability principles to contaminated site management. However, systematic approaches and theoretical frameworks capable of supporting holistic, context-sensitive decision-making for the remediation of sites contaminated with radioactive or mixed material (heavy metals and radionuclides) remain limited. This PhD investigates the applicability of the Community Capitals Framework (CCF), an asset-based community development framework, to the environmental management of radioactively contaminated sites from ongoing or past activities, with a particular focus on Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material (NORM) and Technologically Enhanced NORM (TENORM) sites.

Recent studies across various fields suggest that community-based approaches, as opposed to needs-based approaches, hold significant potential for integrating social dimensions into environmental management. The objective of this research is to evaluate CCF as a theoretical framework for developing a more comprehensive approach to managing radioactively contaminated sites, enhancing community empowerment, and fostering sustainable development.

This thesis adopts a multi-scalar approach, investigating CCF from theoretical development to empirical application. The first chapter examines the application of approaches employing the concept of community capitals in environmental management, highlighting correlations between community capitals, social dimensions, and sustainability. Chapters two and three explore the empirical application of CCF to two case studies - one in Belgium and the other in Italy—through a mixed-methods approach. The fourth chapter synthesizes insights from the case studies, identifying challenges and opportunities for applying CCF in site remediation through cross-case analysis. It evaluates the framework's applicability and reliability for achieving long-term sustainability and assesses community-asset mapping (CAM) methods in relation to decision-support and sustainability assessment methods and tools commonly used in sustainable environmental remediation (SER).

This research highlights the benefits of utilizing community capitals to incorporate social dimensions into environmental remediation and promote long-term sustainable development while underscoring the need for further exploration of the empirical application of CCF. It also emphasizes the importance of developing data analysis methods that can capture the dynamic nature of community capitals to support adaptive management practices.

Promoters:

• Valérie Cappuyns (KU LEUVEN)

Co-promoter:

• Bieke Abelshausen (VUB)

SCK CEN mentor:

• Catrinel Turcanu