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Environmental Restoration of Contaminated Soil

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Sustainability and Applications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2019) | Viewed by 3254

Special Issue Editors

Department of Pedology, University of Salamanca, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Avd. Filiberto Villalobos, 119, 37007-Salamanca
Interests: environmental pollution; soil degradation; heavy metal pollution; remote sensing and GIS; environmental impact

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

For a long time, soil was considered a natural environment with a virtually unlimited capacity to house and purify pollutants without generating (at least immediately) harmful effects. However, it has now been shown that this is not true, since the buffering capacity of soils is limited.

Many pollutants (organic and inorganic) can alter the equilibrium state of the ecosystem. Many of these potentially contaminating elements are found in nature as part of edaphic and biogeochemical processes, but their concentration in the soil is generally low or very low and tends to be kept within very narrow limits (which ensures an optimal ecological balance). However, the problem arises when natural levels, such as heavy metals, are increased by contributions from human activities, causing toxicity to human health and the environment. In this context, the term pollution is often used, which is usually associated with activities such as mining, smelting, industrial activity, energy production, the production and use of pesticides, the treatment and dumping of waste, etc. The consequence of edaphic degradation entails the loss of the resource and/or its fertility and the deterioration of its structure, diminishing biodiversity and generating disturbances in the nutrient cycles, which are essential both for our health and well-being, and for the production of food (90% of food comes directly or indirectly from the soil).

The concern for the protection of soil becomes of greater interest in areas dedicated to the crop, since the cumulative nature of some of these potentially dangerous elements makes them enter the food chain progressively. Soil pollution also has high economic costs due to reduced yields and crop quality, as well as the expense associated with remediation. Some types of edaphic contamination have considerable spatial reaches, so the damage generated in one site may end up affecting other, very distant sites, or even the entire planet. For all these reasons, the prevention of soil contamination should be a priority throughout the world.

The scope of the Special Edition proposed by Sustainability is to highlight the scientific knowledge, at the present time, of the contamination of the soil in the world, as well as to propose innovative solutions in its remediation.

Dr. Antonio Martinez Graña
Prof. Dr. Fernando Santos-Francés
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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2400 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.

Keywords

  • Soil pollution by mining activities and other industries
  • Pollution of urban soils by toxic elements
  • Pollution of soils by heavy metals, organic compounds, hydrocarbons, etc.
  • Diffuse pollution of agricultural soils (compost, pesticides, fertilizers, etc.)
  • Cartography of contaminated soils and geostatistical analysis with GIS
  • Application of radiometric and remote sensing techniques in soil contamination
  • Remediation strategies

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

17 pages, 2886 KiB  
Article
Environmental and Health Risks of Heavy Metals in Farmland Soils of Drinking Water Protection Areas and a Contaminated Paddy Field in Taiwan
by Shih-Han Huang, Ying-Lin Wang, Sheng-Hsien Li, Ling-Chu Chien, Tien-Chin Chang, Zeng-Yei Hseu and Hsing-Cheng Hsi
Sustainability 2019, 11(19), 5166; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11195166 - 20 Sep 2019
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2724
Abstract
This study assessed heavy metal contents and their mobility, bioaccessibility, environmental risk, and health effects in the farmland soils of Drinking Water Source Quality Protection (DWSQP) areas contaminated by livestock manure and a paddy field contaminated by co-use of irrigation and drainage canals [...] Read more.
This study assessed heavy metal contents and their mobility, bioaccessibility, environmental risk, and health effects in the farmland soils of Drinking Water Source Quality Protection (DWSQP) areas contaminated by livestock manure and a paddy field contaminated by co-use of irrigation and drainage canals in Taiwan. The risk assessment code (RAC) and synthesis toxicity index (STI) for the soils were obtained. The potential health effects caused from soil direct ingestion by hand-to-mouth activity and dermal contact frequently occurring to farmers were further evaluated. The Cu, Zn, and Cr levels in DWSQP areas and the Changhwa (CH) paddy field exceeded the standards promulgated by Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration (EPA). Nevertheless, RAC in DWSQP areas was in low risk levels. In contrast, RAC from Cu and Zn in CH paddy soils was in medium levels. Non-carcinogenic risks for farmers based on the total and bioaccessible metals in DWSQP areas and CH soils were all <1. However, carcinogenic risks based on bioaccessible Cr still exceeded 10−6 in several soils, indicating that the potential impacts on environmental and human health due to direct and indirect exposures to these contaminated soils should be concerned. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Restoration of Contaminated Soil)
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