What changes are in store for brownfield land in Scotland this year? How will the contaminated land regime change? How is water legislation being interpreted? What lessons can be learned from England & Wales and is asbestos in soils as big a problem, as being made out south of the border?

These are some questions which will be answered at a conference: New Techniques and Practical Solutions for Investigating, Remediating and Developing Brownfield Land in Scotland, taking place at the Edinburgh Centre for Low Carbon Innovation & Skills on 2 February:

The Scottish Government is planning a consultation on revising the statutory guidance this year and Francis Brewis from the Environmental Quality Division, will outline its thoughts on the contaminated land regime and what may be in the consultation. It will not necessarily follow the recent English route.

How is the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency interpreting the EU Groundwater directive? Malcolm Roberts and Caroline Thornton will cover what advice it is giving to local authorities and companies.

How big is the threat from asbestos in soils? Alan Jones from the Institute of Occupational Medicine and Hazel Davidson from Alcontrol Laboratories will outline the dangers and the work being done to establish ‘safe’ limits, lab sampling and analysis issues and options for treatment and removal.

What can Scotland learn from the application of hub and cluster sites and the movement and re-use of materials in England? How do developments in sustainable remediation specifically apply to Scotland and what can be learned from developing large sites such as the Commonwealth Games Athletes Village site? Speakers from National Grid and Grontmij cover theses issues.

What about cleaning up pollution under buildings, with minimal disruption and leaving a permanent heating source - fact or fantasy? It is fact, according to Jan Haemers of TPS Technologies, who is putting in such systems in Belgium.

And saving substructure costs with breakthroughs in new housing technology is the focus of a talk from Professor Sean Smith, director of the Institute for Sustainable Construction, and Professor of Construction Innovation, Edinburgh University.

And what is the potential for soil carbon sink engineering? Dr Elisa Lopez Capel, from Newcastle University’s School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, will demonstrate via a pilot study which uses a mixture of demolition waste and plants to capture CO2 from the atmosphere.

Other talks include identifying and defining ‘Significant Possibility of Significant Harm’; modelling and statistical analysis for risk assessment; advances in site characterisation for conceptual site models; and monitoring for Volatile Organic Compounds in soil gas.

For more information:

To register, please email conference@newzeye.com or call 020 8969 1008.

BLRS members will get a 10% discount.

www.brownfieldbriefing.com/events/scotland-2012

In July 2012, the Centre for Mined Land Rehabilitation (CMLR), a part of the Sustainable Minerals Institute at the University of Queensland, is co-hosting a new major international conference in Brisbane with the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM) entitled Life-of-Mine 2012. The attached flyer and Call for Abstracts (due 18th November 2011) provides more information on the conference.

A primary purpose of this conference is to provide a forum for scientists and engineers to mix and present and engage in a way that will help embed into the thinking around planning, designing and operating of mines, the awareness and solution-seeking strategies for creating positive environmental, community and land use benefits.

www.blrs.org/downloads/life-of-mine-conference-2012.pdf

Changes to the statutory guidance to Part 2a on contaminated land have been a long time coming and will herald significant differences in the way site assessments and remediation is carried out.

A conference on 1 December at Bankside, London will examine these changes in detail:

Dr Richard Boyle, Senior Technical Manager, Land & Regeneration Technical Team, Homes & Communities Agency, will identify changes to each section of the guidance and the impact on local authorities, consultants and contractors. What is the role of local authorities and the Environment Agency? And how can local authorities work together to develop common strategies and share resources?

Quantifying the costs associated with dealing with contaminated land under Part 2a and allocating these appropriately is a tricky task. This will be covered by Hilary Allen of Davis Langdon. She will answer questions such as: Who is the Class A and who is the Class B person? How much funding will carry on? And how can insurance be used as an alternative funding source?

The factors that have to be considered when making a SPOSH decision and how the term significant possibility of significant harm (SPOSH) is used will be covered by Dr Paul Nathanail, md of LQM. How do you construct a risk summary and what information does it have to contain? How do you get and use health information? How do you balance all the factors in deciding on SPOSH?

What legal issues should be looked for prior to determining SPOSH? Andrew Wiseman of Stephenson Harwood will look at legal cases associated with Part 2a determinations and lessons that can be learnt. How do the changes to the statutory guidance affect these? He will also examine how Part 2a interacts with other environmental and liability legislation.

Workshops with practical exercises and interaction from the seminar delegates take place in the afternoon. Dr Paul Nathanail will take attendees through the steps to conducting a cost-effective and accurate risk assessment under the new requirements. He will look at identifying low risk sites and quantifying actual and unacceptable risk, background levels and conducting risk summaries.

The Environment Agencys Michael Hughes will look at what key criteria are needed for government funding under the Capital Grant Scheme. He will examine the types of projects that have successfully achieved funding.

To register, please email conference@newzeye.com or call 020 8969 1008

About the Organisers

Newzeye is a specialist business-to-business publisher in the built environment, property, regeneration and sustainability areas and has run over one hundred conferences. These events aim to provide cutting edge knowledge and debate on the latest changes, innovations and solutions to everyday challenges with practical advice from key speakers who are experts in their field.

About Brownfield Briefing

Brownfield Briefingprovides news, comprehensive coverage, expert analysis and authoritative comment from key figures in the industry, along with the latest developments in contaminated land, waste, water and policy issues. It is the definitive source for professionals involved in previously developed land. For more information, go to www.brownfieldbriefing.com. Brownfield Briefing was ten years old in March.