Mechanical and Hydrological Processes in Cappings and Covers of Landfills and Mine Waste

A special issue of Geosciences (ISSN 2076-3263). This special issue belongs to the section "Hydrogeology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 August 2018) | Viewed by 9867

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Future Regions Research Centre, Geotechnical and Hydrogeological Engineering Research Group, Federation University, Gippsland, VIC 3841, Australia
Interests: rehabilitation; soil structure; soil hydrology; geomechanics; water balance; soil-plant-atmosphere interaction
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Encapsulation of municipal and other waste from mining is common practice to prevent or minimise environmental harm otherwise caused by this waste. The primary intention of cappings and covers is to control water and/or gas flow. Their implementation has economic benefits and often provides a meaningful solution. The concept of capping is used across climatic zones however different climatic conditions require designs adopted to environmental conditions, which among other factors are dominated by the abundance or lack of moisture, suitability of substrates and biological activity. Within a regulatory framework, cappings have to fulfil certain functional criteria and are often individually defined by the type of waste to be managed and the legislatory framework in which the capping is constructed.

Although the use of cappings and covers to control environmental impact can be very successful, there are still many failed examples . One of the main causes for failure is the neglect of the temporal aspect and the fact that mechanical and hydrological properties may change over time with e.g. repeated dry and wet phases, consequence of frost or biological activity. Other challenges are the quantification of the water balance in landforms with high heterogeneity of properties or the limited age of cappings, which make predicting the trajectory of change difficult.

The objective of this special issue is to reveal hydrological and/or geomechanical processes that may lead to a change of properties to the improvement or detriment of the cover, whether in function or capacity. Submissions are invited, which identify and reveal causes and consequences of geomechanical and hydrological processes, but also attempt to find solutions and improve our understanding of the applicability of cappings and covers for waste.

Assoc. Prof. Thomas Baumgartl
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • Geomechanics
  • Water flow
  • Preferential flow
  • Unsaturated flow
  • Gas flow
  • Heterogeneity
  • Stability
  • Sustainability

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

22 pages, 3041 KiB  
Article
Assessment of Leachate Production from a Municipal Solid-Waste Landfill through Water-Balance Modeling
by Steffen Beck-Broichsitter, Horst H. Gerke and Rainer Horn
Geosciences 2018, 8(10), 372; https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences8100372 - 10 Oct 2018
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 5207
Abstract
Mineral temporary capping systems of landfills are required to accomplish the long-term coverage prerequisites or to use them as a basis layer prior to later permanent sealing. Such a capping system for a municipal waste landfill in Rastorf (Northern Germany) was developed and [...] Read more.
Mineral temporary capping systems of landfills are required to accomplish the long-term coverage prerequisites or to use them as a basis layer prior to later permanent sealing. Such a capping system for a municipal waste landfill in Rastorf (Northern Germany) was developed and tested for its sealing capability on the basis of observed and simulated water balance components for the period between 2008 and 2015, considering observed local weather data and complemented by the Hydraulic Evaluation of Landfill Performance (HELP 3.95 D) model. The modeling results of this case study could be improved by the correction of previously used global solar radiation data due to the consideration of exposure and inclination angle of landfill surface areas. The model could positively be validated by comparing observed and simulated outflow (surface runoff and lateral drainage) data with R2 values ranging between 0.95 and 0.99, as well as for the leachate rates with R2 values of 0.78–0.87. The statistical-empirical HELP model was found useful in predicting the leachate generation of a temporary landfill capping system for specific soil and site conditions, even if only a restricted set of observed data was available. Full article
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15 pages, 2175 KiB  
Article
Suitability of Boulder Marl and Marsh Clay as Sealing Substrates for Landfill Capping Systems—A Practical Comparison
by Steffen Beck-Broichsitter, Horst H. Gerke and Rainer Horn
Geosciences 2018, 8(10), 356; https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences8100356 - 20 Sep 2018
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 4066
Abstract
The effects of compaction on soil shrinkage behavior need to be considered for engineering long-term durable mineral liners of landfill capping systems. For this purpose, a new three-dimensional laser scanning device was coupled with a mathematical-empirical model to simultaneously determine the shrinkage behavior [...] Read more.
The effects of compaction on soil shrinkage behavior need to be considered for engineering long-term durable mineral liners of landfill capping systems. For this purpose, a new three-dimensional laser scanning device was coupled with a mathematical-empirical model to simultaneously determine the shrinkage behavior of a boulder marl (bm) and a marsh clay (mc). Therefore, both materials were precompacted in 200 soil cores (100 cm3) on the basis of the Proctor test results with five different degrees of compaction (bm1-bm5; mc1-mc5). Thus, the shrinkage behavior, intensity, and tendency were determined during a standardized drying experiment. The volume shrinkage index was used to describe the pore size dependent shrinkage tendency and was classified as high to very high (11.3–17.7%) for the marsh clay and medium (5.3–9.2%) for the boulder marl. Additionally, only the boulder marl (bm2), compacted up to 88% of Proctor density, could be installed as landfill bottom liner in drier locations if the local matric potentials did not exceed the previously highest observed drying range (i.e. values below −300 hPa), to avoid crack formation and generation. Full article
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