| Abstract: | Clean-up of sites around the nation has been inhibited by the high costs of assessment and monitoring activities. The use of prescriptive methods adopted at the state and city levels further increase costs and slow cleanup activity. Performance Based Measurement Systems (PBMS) has the potential to change the way in which environmental scientists conduct assessment and cleanup activities. Through a case study, illustrating the way in which “change” can speed up normal assessment activities, the authors will show the utility of PBMS in a brownfields cleanup process. In addition to fostering scientific creativity in the design of measurement methods, PBMS opens the door for the use of many field technologies that had previously been disregarded. The full implementation of PBMS should result in stimulating the development of more innovative and necessary measurement systems. |
