Soil & Environment – serie

Increasing awareness of the irreversible and long-lasting impacts of deterioration and pollution of soils and sediments has had an important influence on environmental policies and research in the last decade. The complexity of the soil and sediment systems and its processes cannot be tackled properly unless scientists from different disciplines work together. With this in mind, a number of multidisciplinary soil research programmes have been started in various European countries. They involve different disciplinary approaches and they aim at different fields of application: agriculture, land use and town and country planning, drinking water supply, nature management. The results that are now appearing need to be integrated in a scientifically sound and useful way. The first European Conference on Integrated Research for Soil and Sediment Protection and Remediation was intended to foster this.The volume contains the edited and selected proceedings of this Conference.

SCOPE, the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment, was established by the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU) in 1969 as an international, non­ to governmental, non-profit organisation with the mandate - advance knowledge of the influence of humans on their environment, as well as the effects of these environmental changes upon people, their health and their welfare­ with particular attention to those influences and effects which are either global or shared by several nations; - to serve as a non-governmental, interdisciplinary and international council of scien­ tists and as a source of advice for the benefit of governments and intergovernmental and non-governmental bodies with respect to environmental problems. SCOPE has been established because critical environmental concerns call for a thor­ ough evaluation of the issues at stake, an assessment of their consequences at global and regional levels and the formulation of possible solutions. Through its activities SCOPE identifies available knowledge, then synthesizing it to point out where gaps and uncertainties exist, and to recommend where efforts should be concentrated to develop explanations and solutions.

In situ remediation techniques have experienced a boom over the last few years, thereby producing a wide range of valuable experiences. Their results have demonstrated that in situ techniques are a mature alternative to conventional remediation techniques. Irrespective of future policy developments, it is impossible to imagine future remediation practice without the use of in situ techniques. The book presents an overview of recent developments in the field of in situ soil remediation. The book is unique in that it is not a compilation of unrelated case studies. A conceptual approach has been chosen; remediation models described in this book are illustrated from a practical point of view. The authors present the Dutch way of treating contaminated land; The Netherlands is renowned for being at the forefront of remediation techniques as a result of the country's progressiveness and experience in this area.

This text describes the excess supply of nutrients and manure to agricultural lands and the resulting problems of groundwater contamination and surface water eutrophication. It reviews these practices in the main EU countries and in North America and proposes a new sustainable approach for dealing with this environmental deterioration.

SCOPE, the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment, was established by the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU) in 1969 as an international, non­ to governmental, non-profit organisation with the mandate - advance knowledge of the influence of humans on their environment, as well as the effects of these environmental changes upon people, their health and their welfare­ with particular attention to those influences and effects which are either global or shared by several nations; - to serve as a non-governmental, interdisciplinary and international council of scien­ tists and as a source of advice for the benefit of governments and intergovernmental and non-governmental bodies with respect to environmental problems. SCOPE has been established because critical environmental concerns call for a thor­ ough evaluation of the issues at stake, an assessment of their consequences at global and regional levels and the formulation of possible solutions. Through its activities SCOPE identifies available knowledge, then synthesizing it to point out where gaps and uncertainties exist, and to recommend where efforts should be concentrated to develop explanations and solutions.

Towards sustainable land use Dr. P. Folstar, Member of the TNO Board of Management Dr. M. Popp, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Research Centre Karlsruhe (FZK) Ten years ago, in 1985, TNO initiated the First Conference on Contaminated Soil in Utrecht. At that time, a rather complete inventory of suspected contaminated sites existed in The Netherlands. Time had come to consider further actions for investigations, evaluation and remediation. This concern has been spreading ever since to other European countries and throughout the world. In particular, German scientists and authorities soon recognized the significance of this problem, and consequently joined TNO in organizing and funding a forum for discussions in a series of conferences. Following three venues in German cities, the 5th conference in Maastricht, a Dutch as well as a European city, marks the increasing interest in the international scientific and political community. Application of the concept of sustainable development to soil as an essential element of human existence requires an answer to the question how to meet the needs of today's generation without impairing the possibilities of mankind in the future. As we do not know the needs of the future, especially regarding the functional requirements of soil use, we can hardly do better than starting from the present priorities. This can not mean to guarantee the quality of soil functions everywhere at any time.

These volumes contain the proceedings of the Fifth FZK/TNO Conference on Contaminated Soil. The themes discussed are as follows: 1. National and International Programmes. 2. Site Investigation. 3. Emission and Fate of Contaminants. 4. Characterization of Contaminated Soil. 5. Effects and Risks. 6. Standards and Protocols: Legal, Economic and Social Aspects. 7. Remediation of Contaminated Soil. 8. Sustainable Land Use. 9. Setting Priorities for Remediation Options. 10. Contributions from Workshops and Technical Sessions.

Increasing awareness of the irreversible and long-lasting impacts of deterioration and pollution of soils and sediments has had an important influence on environmental policies and research in the last decade. The complexity of the soil and sediment systems and its processes cannot be tackled properly unless scientists from different disciplines work together. With this in mind, a number of multidisciplinary soil research programmes have been started in various European countries. They involve different disciplinary approaches and they aim at different fields of application: agriculture, land use and town and country planning, drinking water supply, nature management. The results that are now appearing need to be integrated in a scientifically sound and useful way. The first European Conference on Integrated Research for Soil and Sediment Protection and Remediation was intended to foster this.The volume contains the edited and selected proceedings of this Conference.

F. Arendt, XxX (Conference chairman) w. Harder, TNO (Conference co-chairman) The 1993 Berlin conference on contaminated sites is the fourth in a series of meetings initiated by the Netherlands Organization of Applied Scientific Research (TNO) in 1985 and later continued with the Karlsruhe Nuclear Research center (KfK) of Germany. The present economic stagnation or recession in many countries is leading to various proposals to reduce the level of costly environmental activities: restricted funds are used for really urgent cases rather than precautionary measures. The level of soil contamination caused by the former centrally planned economies adds to this tendency. The Conference tries to broach this controversy by discussing once more the targets and strategies of soil remediation with follow-up use of the site as an important parameter. Both new regulations and modifications of existing lists for a tolerable level of contamination are reviewed alike. Immobilization and enclosure of pollutants are often less expensive than complete remediat­ ion and, consequently, may grow in significance. We consider the conference of great significance for demonstrating the experiences gained with management and remediation of contaminated sites internationally, among others to avoid mistakes and excessive costs. Two new types of soil contamination became apparent after the end of the cold war. Many military sites, airfields and train­ ing grorinds are being abandoned. After decades of use, large sections and hot spots of these sites are polluted to a high average level.

In this study, an overview is presented of agricultural policies on manure and minerals, relating to the Nitrate Directive to remedy excessive surface- and groundwater contamination from intensive agricultural practices. Six countries belonging to the European Union were studied: the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany and the United Kingdom. The policies and their legal incorporation were related to agricultural and environmental conditions in each country. In addition, an inventory was made of agricultural mineral poli­ cies in the United States and Canada. Conditions for livestock farming in North America differ considerably from those in Europe, but their solutions shed a different light on European policies. Research has shown that there are still very considerable mineral surpluses in many countries and regions. In both the Netherlands and in the Flemish part of Belgium, existing problems due to very high levels of manure production are structural rather than local and cannot easily be solved by transport of manure to other regions. To a lesser extent. Germany, Denmark and relatively small parts of France (Brittany) and the United Kingdom, still exceed the norms for an equilibrium fertilization. In Denmark, existing problems can probably be solved within the existing legislative framework. The Netherlands, Flanders. several German Lander (Nordrhein-Westfalen and Schleswig-Holstein) and Brittany.