Environmental Restoration of Contaminated Soil

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

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• 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