editorial soil pollution prevention and remediationlcwu.edu.pk/ocd/cfiles/environmental...

EditorialSoil Pollution Prevention and Remediation

Ezio Ranieri,1 Fabian Bombardelli,2 Petros Gikas,3 and Bernardino Chiaia4

1DICATECh, Polytechnic University of Bari, Via Orabona 4, 70125 Bari, Italy2Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Davis, 3105 Ghausi Hall, One Shields Avenue,Davis, CA 95616, USA3School of Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Crete, 73100 Chania, Greece4Dipartimento di Ingegneria Strutturale, Edile e Geotecnica, Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Torino, Italy

Correspondence should be addressed to Ezio Ranieri; [email protected]

Received 21 June 2016; Accepted 21 June 2016

Copyright © 2016 Ezio Ranieri et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License,which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

In this special issue we have invited authors who are scientistsand engineers to contribute original research as well asreview articles on recent advances made on techniquesand methodologies for the soil pollution prevention andremediation. This journal is in the field of soil science andreflects its multidisciplinary nature including treatments forsoil treatment and reclamation.

Soil pollution probably represents themost faced problemin environmental pollution. This is because soil is a point ofconcentration and recovery of toxic compounds, chemicals,salts, radioactive materials, or disease causing agents, whichhave adverse effects on plant growth and animal health. Soilpollutants can contaminate water: water infiltration is themovement of water from the soil surface into the soil profileand soil is a valuable resource that support cultures andplant life. Soil pollution is the decrease in the productivityof soil due to the presence of soil pollutants. Moreover soilpollutants have an adverse effect on the physical, chem-ical, and biological properties of the soil and reduce itsproductivity.

Main causes of soil pollution are as follows: industrialactivity, especially since the amount of mining and man-ufacturing has increased; agricultural activities, pesticidesand fertilizers which are full of chemicals that are not fullydegradable in nature and are widely utilized around theworld; waste disposal, where there is also a large amountof industrial and municipal waste that is dumped directlyinto landfills without any treatment; and accidental oil spills,where oil leaks can happen during storage and transport ofchemicals.

Main effects of soil pollution are effect on health ofhumans; effect on growth of plants; decreased soil fertility; andtoxic dust.

Through expanding our understanding and developmentof innovative techniques to analyze and treat polluted soils,scientists and engineers can play a crucial role in bringingmodels and technologies to deal with the environmentpollution problem effectively.

The relevant fundamental principles of soil quality man-agement and treatment have been covered. However, themain focus is on assessing sustainable treatment technologiesand current case studies related to soil remediation, naturaland conventional water treatment, and sustainable drainagesystems applied for diffuse pollution treatment.

Academics, professionals, and students in the soil, water,and environmental engineering, science, and managementareas, as well as the geologist and hydrological engineers,should be interested in the detailed design, operation, man-agement, and process control for soil and water qualitymonitoring and applied modeling issues presented in thisissue.

This special issue presents a comprehensive collection oftimely, novel, and innovative research case studies in the areaof soil remediation. It demonstrates to practitioners how nat-ural and innovative systems can be integrated into traditionalsoil remediation, which are predominantly applied for thetreatment of diffuse pollution. Also, it assesses the design,operation, and management of soil remediation technologiesand water treatment performance of sustainable drainagesystems including hydrology and modeling.

Hindawi Publishing CorporationApplied and Environmental Soil ScienceVolume 2016, Article ID 9415175, 2 pageshttp://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/9415175

2 Applied and Environmental Soil Science

Topics of interest include soil remediation, cloggingand soil hydraulic conductivity, phytoremediation and soilremediation technologies, storm water management, urbanrunoff treatment, and soil quality parameters.

Specifically papers included in the special issue are relatedto role of inorganic and organic fractions in animal manurecompost in lead immobilization and microbial activity insoil; cadmium phytoremediation potential of Napier grasscultivated in Kyushu, Japan; phytoremediation of gold minetailings amended with iron-coated and uncoated rice huskash by vetiver grass (Vetiveria zizanioides L.); oil and gas pro-duction wastewaters: soil contamination and pollution pre-vention; a rationale for pollutograph evaluation in ungagedareas, using daily rainfall patterns: case studies of Apuliaregion; the analysis of arsenic speciation in Pteris vittata L.and ash; dissolution of biosolid-borne metals of soils; andimmobilization of As, Mn, Cu, and Pb in gold mine tailingsamended with empty fruit bunch and rice husk biocharspyrolysed at different temperatures.

Particularly urban runoff and phytoremediation havebeen discussed in the special issue.

Storm water runoff from paved streets, sidewalks, andparking lots, and through lawns and storm drains flows,collects and transports waste, salt, pesticides, fertilizer, oil andgrease, and other pollutants [1]. This water drains directlyinto rivers and sea, without receiving treatment. During theirflow through soil pores, the pollutants are subjects to a seriesof interactions such as adsorption, volatilization, and plantuptake. Polluted storm water therefore can harm soil plants,fish, and wildlife, while degrading the quality of soil andwater.

Phytoremediation is an environmentally friendly andlow-cost approach for the decontamination of polluted sitesand has been greeted with a high degree of public acceptance[2, 3].Therefore research using phytoremediation technologyhas been encouraged. In particular,metal hyperaccumulationin different species is investigatedwith the aimof determiningthemechanisms associatedwith the accumulation and detox-ification of heavy metals and using these macrophytes andtheir rhizomes, roots, stems, and leaves for the decontamina-tion of polluted sites.

Ezio RanieriFabian Bombardelli

Petros GikasBernardino Chiaia

References

[1] C. Van Lienden, L. Shan, S. Rao, E. Ranieri, and T. M. Young,“Metals removal from stormwater by commercial and non-commercial granular activated carbons,” Water EnvironmentResearch, vol. 82, no. 4, pp. 351–356, 2010.

[2] E. Ranieri, U. Fratino, D. Petruzzelli, and A. C. Borges, “A com-parison between Phragmites australis andHelianthus annuus inchromium phytoextraction,” Water, Air, & Soil Pollution, vol.224, no. 3, article 1465, pp. 1–9, 2013.

[3] P. Gikas and E. Ranieri, “Effects of plants for reduction andremoval of hexavalent chromium from a contaminated soil,”Water, Air, and Soil Pollution, vol. 225, no. 6, article 1981, pp.1–9, 2014.

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