Soil Chemical Pollution and Military Actions: A Bibliometric Analysis
Abstract
:1. Introduction
Importance of the Problem
2. Materials and Methods
- Choosing the most suitable database as the supply of raw data for the analysis. In this step of the research, we determined the most suitable database for our purpose. In general, there are different potential resources for bibliometric analysis. The most easily accessible would be Google Scholar. This is the most comprehensive database [26] where the sources from developing countries and the grey literature are well represented, but the database is rather confusing, the criteria of entry of publications into this database are not well-defined, that is why its usefulness for bibliometric research is highly questionable [27,28]. The Scopus database is another potential candidate as a data source [29], but in this case, the quality control system needs improvement [30,31]. After substantial consideration, we decided to apply the Web of Science (WoS) database because of its wide coverage of natural science disciplines and the quality of data [32]. There is a wide consensus in the literature that this database is suitable for systematic reviews and bibliometric analyses in various parts of science, from medicine to informatics [33,34].
- Optimization of the search strategy in the database. This phase consisted of determining the optimal combination of relevant keywords by the application of applied ‘try and error’ based heuristics. The system of WoS offers a wide variety of setting up of search strategies. Different keyword combinations were tested. The best results were obtained by application of the search term as follows:
- 3.
- Analysis of the database. In this phase, we had determined the characteristic features of the database according to the following indicators:
- Analysis of the development of international cooperation patterns. For this purpose, we applied the Cytoscape software and its packages [37].
- Outlining of the epistemological development of knowledge on ‘military activity’—‘soil contamination’ problem, followed by the clustering of articles based on their resources, cited in different publications on the base of algorithms offered by CitNetExplorer software, as a result of the work of van Eck and Ludo (2014) [38].
- The basic directions of the research were characterized and visualized by the clustering of co-occurrence of words. For this purpose we applied the VOSviewer software, developed by van Eck and Ludo (2010) [39].
- 4.
- The pieces of information obtained in the third phase of the research lend themselves to determining some generalizable deductions and suggestions for further improvement of environmental policy, regulatory framework, research, and human resource development.
3. Results
3.1. General Characteristic Features of the Database
3.2. Epistemiological Base of the Problem
3.3. Thematic Overview on Main Directions of the Research
3.4. Strategic Mapping of Basic Directions of Research
4. Discussion and Conclusions
- The migration of ergodic components and heavy metals must be analyzed in a more detailed way. This has immense economic importance because this factor can be decisive in the conversion of former, military training grounds and facilities into civil utilization and for the determination of the value of the given site.
- Further research is needed for the determination of the environmental effects of uranium depletion.
- The latest results of genetic engineering (genetic edition) open new horizons for bioremediation techniques.
- It is a lesser studied but very important sphere regarding the analysis of the efficiency of environmental education of military personnel, e.g., if a serviceperson learns in the army the importance of good, environmentally-conscious methods of cleaning and maintenance of the military technology, this knowledge and skills will be transformed into the civilian life too, changing the behavior and attitudes of the population.
- We focused on published, international sources, which appear in the WoS Core international database. Because of the sensitivity of the topics, there could be important results that have not been published or are not publicly available.
- The current resources focus mainly on environmental pollution caused by peacetime operations, maneuvers, or military operations in a relatively well-defined theatre of war. The consequences of large-scale modern warfare operations, such as the Ukraine-Russia conflict, are practically unknown.
- As we have seen, the knowledge base on military action soil contamination problem is growing continuously. Therefore, there is a need to further sophisticate the bibliometric and systematic review research focusing on some specific categories (e.g., phytoremediation, migration of chemical components from land mines, application of remote sensing technologies). An in-depth analysis of these problems goes well beyond the imits of the current article.
Author Contributions
Funding
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
References
- Várallyay, G. Stefanovits Pál (1920–2016). Agrokémia És Talajt. 2016, 65, 187–191. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Broomandi, P.; Guney, M.; Kim, J.R.; Karaca, F. Soil Contamination in Areas Impacted by Military Activities: A Critical Review. Sustainability 2020, 12, 9002. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Ashley, A.J.; Touchton, M. Reconceiving Military Base Redevelopment: Land Use on Mothballed U.S. Bases. Urban Aff. Rev. 2016, 52, 391–420. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Kiersch, G.A. Engineering geosciences and military operations. Eng. Geol. 1998, 49, 123–176. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Anderson, A.B.; Palazzo, A.J.; Ayers, P.D.; Fehmi, J.S.; Shoop, S.A.; Sullivan, P.M. Assessing the impacts of military vehicle traffic on natural areas. Introduction to the special issue and review of the relevant military vehicle impact literature. J. Terramechanics 2005, 42, 143–158. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Kastánek, F.; Demnerová, K. Biodegradation of Petroleum Hydrocarbons After the Departure of the Soviet Army. In Proceedings of the Clean-up of Former Soviet Military Installations, Berlin, Germany, 1 April 1995; pp. 133–140. [Google Scholar]
- Garbino, H. The Impact of Landmines and Explosive Remnants of War on Food Security: The Lebanese Case. J. Conv. Weapons Destr. 2019, 23, 21–26. [Google Scholar]
- Pichtel, J. Distribution and Fate of Military Explosives and Propellants in Soil: A Review. Appl. Environ. Soil Sci. 2012, 2012, 617236. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [Green Version]
- Celin, S.M.; Sahai, S.; Kalsi, A.; Bhanot, P. Environmental monitoring approaches used during bioremediation of soils contaminated with hazardous explosive chemicals. Trends Environ. Anal. Chem. 2020, 26, e00088. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Singh, H.; Singh, A. Chemical Warfare. Eur. J. Mol. Clin. Med. 2020, 7, 4762–4779. [Google Scholar]
- McNutt, M.; Hildebrand, J. Scientists in the line of fire. Science 2022, 375, eabp8817. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Krylova-Grek, Y. Mass media as a factor influencing the concepts semantic field. Signo 2022, 47, 63–71. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Yang, S.; Chen, Z.; Cheng, Y.; Liu, T.; Yin, L.; Pu, Y.; Liang, G. Environmental toxicology wars: Organ-on-a-chip for assessing the toxicity of environmental pollutants. Environ. Pollut. 2021, 268, 115861. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Skalny, A.V.; Aschner, M.; Bobrovnitsky, I.P.; Chen, P.; Tsatsakis, A.; Paoliello, M.M.; Djordevic, A.B.; Tinkov, A.A. Environmental and health hazards of military metal pollution. Environ. Res. 2021, 201, 111568. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Chilvers, B.; Morgan, K.; White, B. Sources and reporting of oil spills and impacts on wildlife 1970–2018. Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res. 2021, 28, 754–762. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Lawrence, M.J.; Stemberger, H.L.; Zolderdo, A.J.; Struthers, D.P.; Cooke, S.J. The effects of modern war and military activities on biodiversity and the environment. Environ. Rev. 2015, 23, 443–460. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [Green Version]
- Al-Hamdany, M. Post-war environmental pollution as a risk factor of congenital disorders in Iraq: A study review: Post-war environmental pollution as a risk factor of congenital disorders in Iraq: A study review. Iraqi Natl. J. Med. 2020, 2, 1–12. Available online: https://www.iasj.net/iasj/article/181120 (accessed on 6 June 2022). [CrossRef]
- SIPRI. SIPRI Yearbook, 2021 Armaments, Disarmament and International Security; SIPRI: Stockholm, Sweden, 2021. [Google Scholar]
- Gruss, I.; Twardowski, J.; Nebeská, D.; Trögl, J.; Stefanovska, T.; Pidlisnyuk, V.; Machová, I. Microarthropods and vegetation as biological indicators of soil quality studied in poor sandy sites at former military facilities. Land Degrad. Dev. 2022, 33, 358–367. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Marcuson, W., III. Soil Mechanics and US National Defense—A Mutually Beneficial Relationship. J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng. 2000, 126, 767–774. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Prem, M.; Saavedra, S.; Vargas, J.F. End-of-conflict deforestation: Evidence from Colombia’s peace agreement. World Dev. 2020, 129, 104852. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Oatsvall, N.S. Trees versus lives: Reckoning military success and the ecological effects of chemical defoliation during the Vietnam war. Environ. Hist. 2013, 19, 427–458. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Chamen, W.T.; Moxey, A.P.; Towers, W.; Balana, B.; Hallett, P.D. Mitigating arable soil compaction: A review and analysis of available cost and benefit data. Soil Tillage Res. 2015, 146, 10–25. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Gil, M.; Wróbel, K.; Montewka, J.; Goerlandt, F. A bibliometric analysis and systematic review of shipboard Decision Support Systems for accident prevention. Saf. Sci. 2020, 128, 104717. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Donthu, N.; Kumar, S.; Mukherjee, D.; Pandey, N.; Lim, W.M. How to conduct a bibliometric analysis: An overview and guidelines. J. Bus. Res. 2021, 133, 285–296. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Gusenbauer, M. Google Scholar to overshadow them all? Comparing the sizes of 12 academic search engines and bibliographic databases. Scientometrics 2019, 118, 177–214. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [Green Version]
- Aguillo, I.F. Is Google Scholar useful for bibliometrics? A webometric analysis. Scientometrics 2012, 91, 343–351. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Rovira, C.; Codina, L.; Guerrero-Solé, F.; Lopezosa, C. Ranking by relevance and citation counts, a comparative study: Google Scholar, Microsoft Academic, WoS and Scopus. Future Internet 2019, 11, 202. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [Green Version]
- Baas, J.; Schotten, M.; Plume, A.; Côté, G.; Karimi, R. Scopus as a curated, high-quality bibliometric data source for academic research in quantitative science studies. Quant. Sci. Stud. 2020, 1, 377–386. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Liu, W. Accuracy of funding information in Scopus: A comparative case study. Scientometrics 2020, 124, 803–811. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Visser, M.; van Eck, N.J.; Waltman, L. Large-scale comparison of bibliographic data sources: Scopus, Web of Science, Dimensions, Crossref, and Microsoft Academic. Quant. Sci. Stud. 2021, 2, 20–41. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Mongeon, P.; Paul-Hus, A. The journal coverage of Web of Science and Scopus: A comparative analysis. Scientometrics 2016, 106, 213–228. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Soosaraei, M.; Khasseh, A.A.; Fakhar, M.; Hezarjaribi, H.Z. A decade bibliometric analysis of global research on leishmaniasis in Web of Science database. Ann. Med. Surg. 2018, 26, 30–37. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- López Belmonte, J.; Moreno-Guerrero, A.-J.; López Núñez, J.A.; Pozo Sánchez, S. Analysis of the Productive, Structural, and Dynamic Development of Augmented Reality in Higher Education Research on the Web of Science. Appl. Sci. 2019, 9, 5306. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [Green Version]
- Guler, A.T.; Waaijer, C.J.; Palmblad, M. Scientific workflows for bibliometrics. Scientometrics 2016, 107, 385–398. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [Green Version]
- Aria, M.; Cuccurullo, C. bibliometrix: An R-tool for comprehensive service mapping analysis. J. Informetr. 2017, 11, 959–975. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Shannon, P.; Markiel, A.; Ozier, O.; Baliga, N.S.; Wang, J.T.; Ramage, D.; Amin, N.; Schwikowski, B.; Ideker, T. Cytoscape: A software environment for integrated models of biomolecular interaction networks. Genome Res. 2003, 13, 2498–2504. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Van Eck, N.J.; Waltman, L. CitNetExplorer: A new software tool for analyzing and visualizing citation networks. J. Informetr. 2014, 8, 802–823. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [Green Version]
- Van Eck, N.; Waltman, L. Software survey: VOSviewer, a computer program for bibliometric mapping. Scientometrics 2010, 84, 523–538. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [Green Version]
- Ignatavičius, G. Environmental Risk Prevention and Environment Management in Lithuanian Military Lands. In Comparative Risk Assessment and Environmental Decision Making; Springer Science & Business Media: Berlin/Heidelberg, Germany, 2004; pp. 403–412. [Google Scholar]
- Ellwanger, G.; Reiter, K. Nature conservation on decommissioned military training areas—German approaches and experiences. J. Nat. Conserv. 2019, 49, 1–8. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Khordagui, H.; Al-Ajmi, D. Environmental impact of the Gulf War: An integrated preliminary assessment. Environ. Manag. 1993, 17, 557–562. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Bonds, E. Legitimating the environmental injustices of war: Toxic exposures and media silence in Iraq and Afghanistan. Environ. Politics 2016, 25, 395–413. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Izsak, K.; Radošević, S. EU research and innovation policies as factors of convergence or divergence after the crisis. Sci. Public Policy 2017, 44, 274–283. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Pryor, J. Highlights of recent epistemology. Br. J. Philos. Sci. 2001, 52, 95–124. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [Green Version]
- Doran, P.M. Application of plant tissue cultures in phytoremediation research: Incentives and limitations. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2009, 103, 60–76. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Chaudhry, Q.; Schröder, P.; Werck-Reichhart, D.; Grajek, W.; Marecik, R. Prospects and limitations of phytoremediation for the removal of persistent pesticides in the environment. Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res. 2002, 9, 4–17. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Purnhagen, K.; Wesseler, J. EU regulation of new plant breeding technologies and their possible economic implications for the EU and beyond. Appl. Econ. Perspect. Policy 2021, 43, 1621–1637. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Cobo, M.; López-Herrera, A.G.; Herrera-Viedma, E.; Herrera, F. SciMAT: A new science mapping analysis software tool. J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci. Technol. 2012, 63, 1609–1630. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Wessely, S. Ten years on: What do we know about the Gulf War syndrome? King’s College Gulf War Research Unit. Clin. Med. 2001, 1, 28–37. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Bjørklund, G.; Pivina, L.; Dadar, M.; Semenova, Y.; Rahman, M.M.; Chirumbolo, S.; Aaseth, J. Depleted uranium and Gulf War Illness: Updates and comments on possible mechanisms behind the syndrome. Environ. Res. 2020, 181, 108927. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Ribeiro, A.C.R.; Deshpande, L.S. A review of pre-clinical models for Gulf War Illness. Pharmacol. Ther. 2021, 228, 107936. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Duraković, A. On depleted uranium: Gulf war and Balkan syndrome. Croat. Med. J. 2001, 42, 130–134. [Google Scholar]
- Woźniak, E.; Tyczewska, A.; Twardowski, T. Bioeconomy development factors in the European Union and Poland. New Biotechnol. 2021, 60, 2–8. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
Military Activity | Consequence on the Soil | Reference |
---|---|---|
Building military-related infrastructure (e.g., barracks, camps, ranges) | Environmental burden and soil pollution, not deferring necessarily from environmental consequences of other “civic” activities, but located in environmentally sensitive areas | Ashley and Touchton, 2016 [3] |
Erection of military-related objects for offensive or defensive maneuvers or drills | Modification of physical and hydrological characteristics of the soil | Kiersch, 1998 [4] |
Military vehicle traffic | Changes in mechanical structure of the soil | Anderson et al., 2005 [5] |
Soil contamination as a consequence of military vehicles and flying objects | Contamination caused by oil and lubricants | Kastánek and Demnerová, 1995 [6] |
Application of landmines | Soil contamination with heavy metal and plastic | Garbino, 2019 [7] |
Application of explosives in military activity | Modification of physical and hydrological characteristics of the soilContamination caused by heavy metals in shells and bombs | Pichtel, 2012 [8] |
Contamination caused by ergodic components | Celin et al., 2020 [9] | |
Consequences of application of weapons of mass destruction | Chemical, radioactive, and microbial contamination | Singh and Singh, 2020 [10] |
Country | Number of Articles | The Relative Share of Publications (%) |
---|---|---|
USA | 1480 | 42.5 |
China | 285 | 8.2 |
United Kingdom | 162 | 4.6 |
France | 144 | 4.1 |
Germany | 129 | 3.7 |
Canada | 119 | 3.4 |
South Korea | 98 | 2.8 |
Australia | 63 | 1.8 |
Italy | 63 | 1.8 |
Czech Republic | 56 | 1.6 |
Iran | 41 | 1.2 |
Russia | 39 | 1.1 |
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. |
© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Share and Cite
Stadler, T.; Temesi, Á.; Lakner, Z. Soil Chemical Pollution and Military Actions: A Bibliometric Analysis. Sustainability 2022, 14, 7138. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14127138
Stadler T, Temesi Á, Lakner Z. Soil Chemical Pollution and Military Actions: A Bibliometric Analysis. Sustainability. 2022; 14(12):7138. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14127138
Chicago/Turabian StyleStadler, Tamás, Ágoston Temesi, and Zoltán Lakner. 2022. "Soil Chemical Pollution and Military Actions: A Bibliometric Analysis" Sustainability 14, no. 12: 7138. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14127138
APA StyleStadler, T., Temesi, Á., & Lakner, Z. (2022). Soil Chemical Pollution and Military Actions: A Bibliometric Analysis. Sustainability, 14(12), 7138. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14127138