Assessing costs and benefits of improved soil quality management in remediation projects: A study of an urban site contaminated with PAH and metals
Journal article, 2020

Contaminants in the soil may threaten soil functions (SFs) and, in turn, hinder the delivery of ecosystem services (ES). A framework for ecological risk assessments (ERAs) within the APPLICERA - APPLICable site-specific Environmental Risk Assessment research project promotes assessments that consider other soil quality parameters than only contaminant concentrations. The developed framework is: (i) able to differentiate the effects of contamination on SFs from the effects of other soil qualities essential for soil biota; and (ii) provides a robust basis for improved soil quality management in remediation projects. This study evaluates the socio-economic consequences of remediation alternatives stemming from a Tier 1 ERA that focusses on total contaminant concentrations and soil quality standards and a detailed, site-specific Tier 3 Triad approach that is based on the APPLICERA framework. The present study demonstrates how Tier 1 and Tier 3 ERAs differ in terms of the socioeconomic consequences of their remediation actions, as well as presents a novel method for the semi-quantitative assessment of on-site ES. Although the presented Tier 3 ERA is more expensive and time-consuming than the more traditional Tier 1 ERA approach, it has the potential to lower the costs of remediation actions, decrease greenhouse gas emissions, reduce other environmental impacts, and minimise socio-economic losses. Furthermore, the remediation actions stemming from the Tier 3 ERA were predicted to exert far less negative ES effects than the actions proposed based on the results of the Tier 1 ERA. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Ecosystem services

Contaminated sites

Ecological risk assessment

Remediation

Soil quality

Cost-benefit analysis

Author

Yevheniya Volchko

Chalmers, Architecture and Civil Engineering, Geology and Geotechnics

Dan Berggren Kleja

Swedish Geotechnical Institute (SGI)

Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU)

Par-Erik Back

Swedish Geotechnical Institute (SGI)

Charlotta Tiberg

Swedish Geotechnical Institute (SGI)

Anja Enell

Swedish Geotechnical Institute (SGI)

Maria Larsson

Örebro University

Christopher M. Jones

Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU)

Astrid Taylor

Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU)

Maria Viketoft

Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU)

Annika Aberg

SWECO Environment

Anna-Karin Dahlberg

Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU)

Jana Weiss

Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU)

Karin Wiberg

Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU)

Lars Rosen

Chalmers, Architecture and Civil Engineering, Geology and Geotechnics

Science of the Total Environment

0048-9697 (ISSN) 1879-1026 (eISSN)

Vol. 707 135582

Subject Categories

Environmental Sciences related to Agriculture and Land-use

Other Environmental Engineering

Environmental Sciences

DOI

10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.135582

PubMed

31776003

More information

Latest update

4/29/2020