A new Special Issue in the Applied Sciences Journal
Soil contamination is a worldwide problem which degrades soils and comes with high costs for the community. Soil pollution has a direct impact on food security, human health, and the environment. Human activities are the primary source of most pollutants. Unsustainable farming practices, industrial activities and mining, and untreated urban waste have progressively contaminated soil, air, and water.
Several actions have been adopted at EU level by the JRC (Joint Research Centre) and the EEA (European Environment Agency) to face this important soil threat and to identify indicators of soil pollution to be monitored. Several UN Sustainable Development Goals have targets which take into account soil pollution and degradation in relation to food security. The spatial variability of contamination is a crucial problem when evaluations are required to address reclamation or phytoremediation on agricultural or industrial contaminated sites, because location, content, nature, and form of potentially toxic elements (PTE) are usually little-known. Proper investigation tools are necessary to identify the geography of soil contamination, as well as the variability (in space and depth) of soil chemical, physical, and hydrological properties, because they affect the soil’s capacity to filter and buffer contaminants, and to degrade and attenuate the negative effects of PTE.
Under this perspective, the Special Issue wants to contribute to the research area, presenting the most relevant advances in this field related (but not limited) to the following topics:
- Use of sensors and field techniques for soil spatial variability and pollution assessment;
- Precision remediation actions applied to contaminated sites;
- Modelling of soil hydrological properties as media to forecast and prevent groundwater pollution;
- Contamination affecting soil ecosystem functions and services;
- Spatial decision support systems as policy tools for monitoring and managing soil pollution.
Dr. Piero Manna
Prof. Simona Vingiani
Guest Editors
Link https: www.mdpi.com