Treatment of polluted soil
Thanks to its absorbing power, its buffer capacity, and its intense biotic activity, the soil is prone to self-treatment, or at least, is able to reduce the negative effects deriving from the presence of pollutants. Of course the soil self-treatment capacity has some limits. If pollution goes over this limit, the soil can lose its “filter” function in an irreversible way, provoking many damages. Differently from the atmosphere and water, which decontaminate quite rapidly, the soil, although it has a high self-treatment capacity thanks to chemical, physical, and biological mechanisms, keeps contaminated for a long period. It was noticed that, in order to significantly reduce the content of heavy metals in a polluted soil, the quantity of water corresponding to tens of years of rain is not sufficient. The presence of polluting compounds in the soil, especially highly toxic ones, can represent a risk for human health and for the environment, and requires reclamation activities. The reclamation of a land can be based on the inactivation or degrade of pollutants (they are transformed into less dangerous or not dangerous substances) or their removal by using chemical, physical or biological treatments. Reclamations is normally done on agricultural land and areas close to industrial zones or abandoned dumps.
Special reports
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When walking along a tree-lined avenue in a crowded and traffic-congested city, wrapped up in our daily commitments, we do…
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13 May 2013
Small steps, great footprints
Have you ever wondered how much space is taken up by an apple or a steak?...
3 December 2006
Sustainable agriculture
Agriculture is man’s main activity, it enables the production of food...
-
10 March 2006
Environment biotech
Biotechnology can be defined as the application of microbiology...
-
10 January 2007
Man and the mountain
The antique populations that used to live at the bottom of the mountains...
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13 May 2013
Small steps, great footprints
Have you ever wondered how much space is taken up by an apple or a steak?...
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3 December 2006
Sustainable agriculture
Agriculture is man’s main activity, it enables the production of food...
From the Multimedia section
Facts
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Laterite and bauxite deposits
These deposits can be observed in those tropical areas that are characterized by...
And in underground tunnels?
There are groups of terrestrial animals that eat insects, worms and other invertebrates...
What about the permafrost?
In Sub Arctic Swedish regions, some scientists studied the changes of permafrost...
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The most populated cities in the world
In the last 50 years the world population has passed from 2.5 billion to 6 billion...
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Mountains on the Earth
The different landscapes that we analysed in the previous section are distributed...
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24 February 2011
Laterite and bauxite deposits
These deposits can be observed in those tropical areas that are characterized by...
And in underground tunnels?
There are groups of terrestrial animals that eat insects, worms and other invertebrates...
-
What about the permafrost?
In Sub Arctic Swedish regions, some scientists studied the changes of permafrost...
-
The most populated cities in the world
In the last 50 years the world population has passed from 2.5 billion to 6 billion...
-
24 February 2011
Laterite and bauxite deposits
These deposits can be observed in those tropical areas that are characterized by...
-
And in underground tunnels?
There are groups of terrestrial animals that eat insects, worms and other invertebrates...
-
What about the permafrost?
In Sub Arctic Swedish regions, some scientists studied the changes of permafrost...