Environmentally Sustainable Strategies for Contaminated Soil Remediation and Safe Reuse

Dear Colleagues,

Nowadays, soil contamination is a worldwide-recognized environmental issue that constantly requires effort from the scientific community to investigate new strategies to perform soil remediation by means of sustainable approaches. The main problem derives from the contaminant typology (i.e., organic or inorganic) as well as the possible contaminant distribution heterogeneity in soil that strongly affects the remediation technique to implement. Besides this, contaminant fractionation in the polluted soil and soil physical–chemical characteristics (such as soil pH, humic acids content, soil particles size distribution, mineralogy, and matrix constituents) contribute to a certain unpredictability in terms of remediation process performances. This has led several researches to focus on the more feasible remediation methods and optimal operational conditions in order to achieve suitable and cost-effective soil remediation efficiencies. However, involved remediation techniques do not always represent a proper solution throughout the entire treatment system from an environmental-safety point of view. In fact, significant concerns about soil quality preservation after treatment for its possible reuse as well as the safe disposal of removed pollutants should be considered. This could represent an important perspective for sustainable remediation processes accounting for healthier and more environmentally friendly strategies.

This Special Issue seeks research papers focusing on various aspects of contaminated soil treatment systems. Especially, we encourage the submission of interdisciplinary works that introduce remediation alternatives connected to an economical/environmental sustainable context. We also encourage the submission of research that significantly emphasizes soil quality safety after treatment and suggests promising solutions to the disposal of removed contaminants. In this Special Issue, the submission of original research papers using different study designs at different operational scales is welcomed, as well as systematic reviews and meta-analyses.

Dr. Alberto Ferraro
Dr. Marco Race
Dr. Danilo Spasiano
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.