Geochemical Characteristics and Contamination Risk Assessment of Soil

Dear Colleagues,

Soil, as a key component of the four circles interconnecting atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere and lithosphere, plays a vital role in sustaining human life and the terrestrial system globally. Meanwhile, the soil contamination of toxic trace metals is becoming increasingly serious in many countries around the world, along with urbanization and industrialization, of which pose a severe hazard to ecosystems and human health. The increased content of trace metals can adversely affect the biological properties of soil, cause changes in the food chain, have a toxic effect on plants, and can contaminate groundwater. The total concentration and geochemical baseline concentration are usually the first step in the assessment of trace metals pollution. Moreover, the background values can distinguish between natural and anthropogenically influenced concentrations, and in turn, can calculate the anthropogenic contribution rate. When the permissible content level is exceeded, heavy metals reduce soil fertility, inhibit soil enzymatic activity, and change soil acidity.

Traditional long-lasting mining and extraction processes are accompanied by severe environmental pollution and ecological damage globally, but at the same time, the mining and mineral extraction processes industry plays a vital role in the development of modern technologies. There is a growing demand for raw material production and supplying invaluable resources for modern civilisation. Modern society achieves greater efficiency by developing innovative waste recycling technologies.

The increase in the amount of mining and metallurgical waste represents a big problem for the environment. This is why various methods are used for the processing of flotation tailings, red mud, and slag landfills, which are a potential source of accumulated metals. Unfortunately, they pile up on the ground and create an intractable problem. This is why advances in studying the processing of various landfills are a great challenge, thus motivating scientists and the entire human community. The processing of acid mine drainage waters and the neutralization of acidic waters will especially be discussed in this book, which will include our hydrometallurgists and hydrogeologists.

This Special Issue invites research papers on the various aspects of soil pollution to understand the relationships between soil and the surrounding environment. The combination of different analytical modelling techniques and pollution indices provides a more reliable approach for comprehensively determining toxic elements, their pathways, and their spatial distributions. The results on this topic from a global perspective are of interest to this Special Issue, as well as legal and regulatory challenges.

Dr. Jasminka Alijagić
Dr. Srecko Stopic
Guest Editors

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