Environmental Science And Engineering (Soil Pollution And Phytoremediation‪)‬

Soil pollution is the presence of any harmful liquid, solid or sludge material, chemical, substance or object in soil in high enough concentrations that may cause adverse effects to human health and ecosystem. Soil pollution mainly develops through man-made activities like accidental spill and leakage of chemicals; foundry, manufacturing, mining, construction, agriculture and transportation activities and dumping of household, medical and industrial wastes in landfills leading to groundwater contamination and generation of toxic gases. Everyone including humans, plants, animals and ecosystem coming in close contact with contaminated soil is susceptible to soil pollution. A number of in situ and ex situ techniques has been developed to decontaminate polluted soils. These methods include removal of contaminated soil and deposit it in landfills or to incinerate it. Various soil washing techniques have been developed for removal of heavy metals including physical and chemical methods. However, none of these methods is ideal for remediating contaminated soils and often, more than one method is applied to get the desired result. Phytoremediation is a latest alternate technology developed for treatment of soil contaminated with organic and inorganic contaminants. Phytoremediation makes use of living green plants and associated soil microbes for in situ removal, reduction or containment of toxic effects or concentrations of range of contaminants including metals, pesticides, solvents, explosives, crude oil, polyaromatic hydrocarbons and landfill leachates in soils, sludges, sediments, surface water and groundwater. With the above background, the topics covered in this volume include: o Soil pollution and phytoremediation o Major sources and types of soil pollutants o Study of factors and environmental monitoring of urban soils contamination o Effect of soil amendments on the mobility and availability of potentially toxic trace elements in phytoremediated contaminated soils o Behaviour of heavy metals in soils-distribution and interaction with soil constituents o An overview of phytoremediation o Phytoremediation of heavy metals by catharanthus roseus linn o Phytoremediation and bioremediation of contaminated soils o Phytoremediation for soil health improvement o Phytoremediation of abandoned mining areas using native plant species o Electrokinetic and electrochemical remediation of contaminated soils o Levels assessment and origin study of PAHs in organisms and sediments o Adsorption of heavy metal cations on bentonite and bentonite/iron oxide composite o Behaviour of flazasul furon and tribenuron-methyl on soil biology o Phytoremediation and bioremediation of Pb, Cu, Hg, Cd, Ni and Zn o Eco-friendly techniques for heavy metal toxicity removal from polluted soil and water The present volume contains 16 articles from 48 researchers, academicians and professionals representing 12 nations, namely Bulgaria, China, Ecuador, Egypt, France, India, Italy, Morocco, Russia, Slovak, Spain and Syria giving an overview of the various research activities being taken in different parts of the world on Soil Pollution and Phytoremediation.