Area 3: Environmental Technologies ( incl. technologies related to water and soil)

TEG 3.2: Integrated and cost-effective system technologies, including ecohydrology based technologies, for evaluation, improvement and reclamation of water and soil quality

CALL LINE 2
Methods for remediation of contaminated and/or degraded land, water and sediments

Justification

Over the decades, pollution has been discharged in surface waters, as well as in groundwater and soils, and has accumulated in dissolved form in groundwater, as well as in adsorbed form on solid particles. Large scale polluted water resources are well known, and they need ongoing efforts and innovative solutions [deleted]. However, smaller sized polluted sediment layers and polluted soil areas are being continuously revealed, and the corresponding water resources and aquatic biotopes associated with them also have to be restored. The available financial and technical means are limited, and therefore there is a need for the development of innovative specific technologies.

General objectives

Application of phyto-remediation technologies to mitigate physical or chemical degradation, alone or in combination with other ecohydrological or new technologies, presently tested at individual or demonstration scale, to achieve synergistic benefits at basin scale.

To demonstrate effectiveness of low-cost phyto-remediation technologies to mitigate physical or chemical degradation at small (single-user) or intermediate scales. To quantify synergistic effects of phytoremediation in combination with other ecohydrological or new technologies To validate techniques, presently tested at individual or demonstration scale, to achieve synergistic benefits at basin scale to meet objectives and standards

Specific objectives from perspective of the New Member States

The concept of phyto-technologies (within the general field of Ecological Engineering) is not a new one, but in NMS its application under different climatic (e.g. semi-arid Mediterranean) or geological (e.g. karst) conditions has not been tried beyond few individual projects and it was not felt that western European and US experience was directly transferable.

Moreover, many other mitigation technologies (other types of ecohydrological approaches as well as artificial environmental technologies) that offer promise are themselves in an experimental or demonstration-site stage.

Specific objective examples from the group were:

• Erosion stabilisation & soil remediation of semi-arid arable soils (Turkey), semi-arid degraded terraced soils (e.g. Malta), intensively-arable soils in many countries.
• Radionuclide contaminations e.g. natural radon; arising from post-communist industrial sites
• Salinisation, e.g. Mediterranean countries
• Water pollution, e.g. single settlement or community; polluted river water re-use.
• Sedimentation, e.g. downstream effect of flooding from post-industrial sites; watercourses in intensively arable landscapes
• Remediation of contaminated river and lake sediments carrying a „chemical time-bomb“ from post-industrial and post-communist legacy.

Background / state-of-the-art

NMS are well represented in a COST action 859 for 2004-9 - Phytotechnologies "To Promote Sustainable Land Use And Improve Food Safety" (http://www.gre.ac.uk/cost859/) so the outputs from that project (which is more focused upon laboratory and experimental studies) will feed into future developments. The US is a major research player (e.g. http://www.phytotechnologies.org/) so developments in . The concept is less than two decades old, so many initiatives are still proving experimental techniques. Participants felt that FP7 shwould offer the opportunity to trial laboratory-proven technologies at field and basin-scales. A manual of use has recently been produced by the UNEP division of Technology, Industry and Economics, in collaboration with the European Regional Centre for Ecohydrology at Lodz, Poland (http://www.unep.or.jp/ietc/Publications/Freshwater/FMS7/index.asp .
The latter Centre places the focus of phytoremediation on practical, field demonstration scale, as part of the portfolio of ecohydrological techniques that are available for restoration of ecosystem processes at basin scale.

Ongoing and completed projects on issues raised

Several FP5 projects have been identified dealing with specific approaches:

• METALLOPHYTES "An integrated approach towards removal by plants of toxic metals from polluted soils" QLK3-CT-2000-00479
• "Development of systems to improve phytoremediation of metal contaminated soils through improved phytoaccumulation" QLK3-CT-2001-00429
• PHYTODEC "A decision support system to quantify cost/benefit relationships of the use of vegetation in the management of heavy metal polluted soils and dredged sediments" EVK1-CT-1999-00024
• "Contaminated soil - assessment and remediation technologies to protect the groundwater" EVK1-CT-2000-57007
• METALBIOREDUCTION "Development of technologies using the activity of sulphate- and metal l-reducing bacteria (smrb) to remove heavy metals and metalloids from ground waters and soils" EVK1-CT-1999-00033

Nevertheless, they strongly focus on metal pollutants, whereas existing pollution is very diverse. Other toxic pollutants need to be considered.

Priorities of FP7 and WSSTP SRA addressed by objectives

The call line refers to WSSTP pilot priority: Reclamation of degraded water zones, and regarding FP7, theme Environment call to Activity II – Sustainable Management of Resources, priority 1 - Conservation and sustainable management of natural and man-made resources and Activity III – Environmental technologies, priority 1 - Environmental technologies for the sustainable management and conservation of the natural and man-made environment

Suggestion for most appropriate type of project

Collaborative research project

Specific research highlights

• Erosion stabilisation (e.g. natural vegetation with super-absorbents - SAP)
• Radionuclide contaminations (e.g. retention in artificial wetlands)
• Salinisation (e.g. natural species of vegetation not yet tested)
• Water pollution (e.g. artificial wetlands at single community (village) level, or side-channel storage of polluted river water prior to irrigation)
• Sedimentation (e.g. pre-dam ponds upstream of reservoirs for water quality or flood control)
• Remediation (in situ or ex situ) of contaminated sediments in combination with advanced technologies such as A.O.P. for old (e.g. organics) or new (e.g. pharmaceuticals)

Existing expertise

The important scientific components of a suitable consortium were represented in the group:

• Soil and water science,
• ecology and ecohydrology
• Physics and chemistry
• Phytoremediation
• River restoration

Required expertise

The social scientists needed to be an integral part of projects addressing the synergistic effects of individual contaminations at basin scale.

Gaps in knowledge

• Technologies for mitigation of soil erosion in the full range of geomorphological conditions of the enlarged EU
• Understanding and modeling of groundwater contamination and spread at fine detail of individual sites
• Methods for remediation of contaminated land & ground/surface water seepage (including natural radiation)
• Mitigation of movements of contaminated sediments
• Basin-scale flood control eco-technologies
• Date availability and transferability; Decision Support Systems (DSS) for risk evaluation
• Methods for addressing the physical gap between water supply and demand (including ground water recharge)
• Methods for assessing and models for predicting the scale of water pollution at lowest scales (individual households)

Societal, economical and European relevance

The call line is particularly relevant to the emerging economies of Eastern and Southern Europe because of the "low cost, high technology" nature of Ecohydrology. This should not, however, be allowed to hide the fact that such emerging environmental technologies that produced solutions to specific problems through the restoration of ecosystem processes and biodiversity had a very high value to all economies as viable alternatives to mere technical solutions that merely solved one problem with no net additional environmental benefits.
With this perspective, the relevance of ecohydrological solutions becomes global and societal rather than limited to nations or regions.