T19 GSA Environmental and Engineering Geology Division Student Research Competition (Posters)

Sunday, 9 October 2022
9:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Exhibit Hall F

ENGINEERING GEOLOGY FOR MANAGING RISKS AT CONTAMINATED SITES – THE POTENTIAL FOR GENTLE REMEDIATION OPTIONS (GRO)

Paper number: T19-2
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM

Authors

Abstract

Keywords: Risk communication; Gentle remediation options (GRO); Ecosystem services; Risk-based land management (RBLM); Brownfields; Phytomanagement

Aim: The aim of this poster is to present a risk management framework for gentle remediation options (GRO), including its broader use to facilitate phytomanagement as a contaminated land management strategy to provide risk management via gentle remediation options (GRO) and other wider benefits like ecosystem services.

GRO are risk management strategies/technologies that use plants, bacteria, fungi and soil amendments for effective risk management as well as improved soil functions, which are fundamental for ES, and are suitable primarily for large sites with low to medium levels of soil contamination. “Phytomanagement” refers to the long-term combination of GRO with beneficial land use (e.g. profitable crop production but also wider economic and environmental benefits) to gradually reduce risks at contaminated sites while also restoring soil functioning and thus ecosystem services. In this way, GRO can be a key part of a multifunctional land management strategy. This contribution will present recent research to derive a risk management framework for GRO to use in risk communication and planning for phytomanagement of contaminated sites (see link below to published article). The framework clarifies the links between risk objects, risk mitigation mechanisms and GRO, based on the evidence from the scientific literature. It also provides a time frame for managing different types of contaminants by different GRO strategies. Broader implications of such multifunctional strategies will also be briefly highlighted in terms of their potential for providing ecosystem services and other desirable co-benefits such as climate change resilience and green infrastructure as a nature-based solution.

A risk management framework for Gentle Remediation Options (GRO) - ScienceDirect https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004896972104955X

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 54, No. 6

doi: 10.1130/abs/2022AM-377252

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