INTRODUCTION
The U.S. Department of Defense and the Army conduct risk assessments to determine safe levels and cleanup target levels for military relevant compounds (MRCs) and to evaluate remediation alternatives to provide the most cost-effective approach to reach target levels. As part of the Army's Installation Restoration Research Program (IRRP), the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) and the US Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine (USACHPPM) developed a computer-based, modeling- and database-driven analysis system for estimating human and ecological health impacts and risks associated with MRCs and other potential contaminants of concern. The Adaptive Risk Assessment Modeling System (ARAMS™) is based on a widely accepted risk paradigm that integrates exposure and effects assessments to characterize risk.

Objective: The objective was to develop a computer-based, modeling, data delivery, and analysis system that integrates multimedia and multi-pathway fate/transport, exposure, intake/uptake, and effects of military relevant compounds and other constituents of potential concern to assess present and future human and ecological health impacts/risks associated with chronic exposure.

Overall Approach: ARAMS incorporates various existing databases and models for exposure, intake/update, and effects (health impacts) into an object-oriented, conceptual site modeling framework. With ARAMS, the user has the flexibility to visually specify, through objects, multimedia pathways and risk scenarios. Also, the user can choose which particular module (i.e., model, database) to use for each object. The conceptual site modeling framework is based on the Framework for Risk Analysis in Multimedia Environmental Systems (FRAMES) developed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Figure 1 is an example of the FRAMES CSM interface.