Soil contamination has been identified as one of the important actions of the European strategy for soil protection, since soil pollution greatly influences the quality of water, food and human health.
However, soil contamination is often identified by the sole values of concentration of contaminants. In this perspective, the concept of soil quality is almost completely lost, also neglecting the fact that soil quality should be defined through all the processes regulating the movement of the contaminants in the soil and not by the simple value of the pollutant concentration.

Possible topics of the session:
• Origin of soil contaminants
• Degradation, mobility and persistence of contaminants
• Contaminant variability across the soil system
• Sensors and receptors of soil contaminations

The assessment of soil contamination is followed by remediation procedures and techniques. There is a growing interest in the clean up approaches that maintain soil quality after remediation treatments. To obtain this goal remediation should consider all the environmental effects and the impacts of the approach and select options to maximize the environmental benefit of cleanup actions. Remediation should be aimed to promote the preservation of soil functions.

Possible topics
Minimally invasive technologies
Minimize soil and habitat disturbance
Contaminant bioavailability in risk-assessment strategies
How identify and minimize the bioavailable contaminants fractions as the remediation target