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Water Intelligence Online © IWA Publishing 2005 / UNIQUE ID: 200508017

Risks of aerobic granular sludge technology; ethical and methodological aspects

I.R. van de Poel*, S.D. Zwart**, M. Brumsen*, H.G.J. van Mil*

* Delft University of Technology, School of Technology, Policy and Management, 2600 GA Delft, The Netherlands
** Eindhoven Technical University, Department of Technology Management, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands

In this paper we report on the first results of our STW project, which considers ethical and methodological aspects of the research into the design and development of GSBRs in the Netherlands. To get a first idea about the risks of this development, we have invited ten specialists from the water boards, universities, engineering firms and regulators and asked them about their ideas regarding the risks involved. Our question as to what those risks are resulted in a shortlist of seventeen risks; then we asked them to score those risks on ordinal probability and impact scales, This resulted in a distinction between large and small risk and a number of medium scale risks. Finally we asked the participants to indicate in what phase of the GSBR development the various risks should be addressed. For some risks this showed that if undesirable consequences should occur there would be a problem of many hands. We will present an overview of the scores and provide some interpretations.