Scoping

Scoping represents the planning phase of integrated risk assessment. Its purpose is to define the issue to be assessed and the 'rules' to be followed in the assessment process. By the same token, scoping provides a checklist on the assessment process, and helps to ensure that all the key factors have been considered during that process.

It also provides a framework for discussion with the stakeholders during the assessment process and for reporting results of the risk assessment.

Key elements:

• issue framing (developing a 'model' of the issue to assess)
• indicator selection and specification (identifying the indicators to be used for the assessment)
• definition of variables (structuring the assessment in variables and defining a causal diagram/scoping diagram)
• protocol development (delimiting the assessment methods and data to be used in the assessment process).