Engineered soils for recultivation of degraded sites
- Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia (anja.gantar@bf.uni-lj.si)
The total area of agricultural land in Europe and Slovenia is constantly decreasing, causing the loss of a potential for food production and self-sufficiency capacity. In addition to limiting soil sealing, one of the main objectives of the EU Soil Strategy for 2030 involves recultivating degraded sites, which requires appropriate materials, in particular for fertile, top layers.
Due to the complexity of the restoration process of agricultural land, the ability of the restored areas to provide full or any scope of ecosystem services as expected depends on several factors. What the opencast mines have in common is the removal of the top, fertile part of the soil in the exercising of mining rights. The availability of fertile soils with suitable properties is often one of the main limitations for appropriate recultivation. Whilst less fertile soil or even inert construction or industry residuals may be used to recultivate the lower layers, the top layers require using engineered soils with appropriate physical, biological and chemical properties. These properties depend on the purpose of the final use of sites. Apart from making sure that the engineered soils have appropriate physical, chemical and biological properties, it is also necessary that they do not contain excessive concentrations of potentially hazardous substances when it comes to agricultural use.
The primary aim and objective is to develop technologies for producing fertile soils from inorganic and organic waste resulting from construction work or opencast mines and other industrial processes. The main categories of waste where the Slovenian recycling rate is lower than the EU rate are sewage sludge and non-hazardous construction and demolition waste. In this contribution, we are studying how to improve non-fertile soils with various additives of secondary origin to prepare fertile soil mixtures that enable a safe space greening or even food production.
Acknowledgements: Project LIFE20 IPE/SI/000021 je co-financed by European Union.
Keywords: agricultural landscape, land rehabilitation, recultivation, top soil
How to cite: Gantar, A., Zupanc, V., Grčman, H., and Zupan, M.: Engineered soils for recultivation of degraded sites, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 24–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-4373, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-4373, 2023.
