National Occupational Standards in
Archaeological Practice

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AE2 Assess options for conserving the archaeological resource in situ

AE2.2 Define the risks of conserving the archaeological resource in situ

Performance Required

This will involve:

1. Ensuring that the process of risk assessment covers all relevant areas of potential risk
2. Seeking appropriate sources of information and advice
3. Preparing a risk assessment that establishes the potential consequences of and their likelihood of occurring singularly, and where relevant, in combination
4. Preparing an overall appraisal which addresses the acceptability of risk

Occupational Context

1. Areas of potential risk
   • damage / deterioration / loss of the resource
   • exhaustion of supplied resources: timescale for action, finances, human resources
   • health and safety
   • environmental
   • financial
   • legal/ political
2. Sources of information
   • statutes / regulations and related guidance
   • technical guidance/research reports
   • business / commercial guidance
   • from professional institutions and regulatory bodies
   • previous research projects which demanded specific attention to risk, i.e. experience in the field.
3. Appraisal
   • qualitative and experiential review
   • statistical / quantitative data
   • projections and forecasts
   • categories / ranking of risk factors

Knowledge Requirements

You need to know about:

Risk

• Risk theory
• Qualitative and quantitative risk assessment
• Risk identification and classification: practical and immediate risk/ long term costs/ outcomes and impacts and consequences
• Models of risk management

Organisation

• Attitude to risk: organisational culture
• Capacity for handling risk: human, financial and time resources
• Strategy and risk: legislative policy and procedures, authoritative structure and responsibility for management

Data

• Information sources - internal, external
• Legislation
• Organisational and industry recommended response options

Required Skills

You should demonstrate:

• Writing risk assessments and appraisals
• Effective decision making under uncertainty

Evidence Required

You should provide evidence that you can define the risks of preserving the archaeological resource in situ

The candidate should be questioned, based upon the documentation provided, to explore

• the form of risk assessments, detailing identified and classified risk in relation to specific resource management

Evidence Rules

The candidate should have been involved in at least 2 contrasting sites.

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Today's date: 31/7/2010
This page last updated: 6/8/2007 11:58