The analysis and evaluation of environmental risk is a methodological tool that allows estimating the risk of certain consequences occurring in the environment. This process can be carried out using different methods and standards as reference. The environmental risk analysis and evaluation process will be extended in Spain in the coming years due to the approval of the Environmental Responsibility Law.

The environmental liability law aims to make companies respond to the damage they may cause to certain natural resources (in short, to the environment). Companies are, therefore, obliged to return the damaged resource to its initial situation.

Currently, and given the present legislative framework, different methods have been developed (and also updated) that take into account the expectations and needs of interested parties. These tools are intended to provide elements of judgment that guide the different agents involved in decision-making, as well as comply with new legal requirements (and for some companies, existing ones).

The determination of environmental damage includes carrying out a series of operations aimed, firstly, at identifying the agent causing the damage and the natural resources and services affected; secondly, to quantify the damage based on its extension, intensity and time scale and, finally, to evaluate its significance. It must be taken into account that determining the significance of the damage is a crucial operation, since the applicability of the environmental liability system rests on it. An effort must therefore be made to use criteria that guarantee objectivity in this assessment work (precisely for this reason one should choose to refer said significance to the standards already provided for in other validated standards for each natural resource, given that they reflect what should be understood by a reasonable state of conservation of each of them, and therefore, allow the adverse alteration of that state to be classified as significant damage that must be repaired).

Some of the most used references and objective methods are:

The basic methodology consists of:

We must bear in mind, however, that adequate monitoring and consultation must be carried out, as well as monitoring of the risk detected.

To do this, it is advisable to identify initiating events, assign probabilities of the initiating event and establish different risk scenarios.