The Australasia-Pacific Region supports approximately 50% of the world's population. The last half-century has witnessed a rapid increase in the regional population, agricultural productivity, industrial activities and trade within the region. Both the demand for increased food production and the desire to improve the economic conditions have affected regional environmental quality. This volume presents an overview of the fate of contaminants in the soil environment; current soil management factors used to control contaminant impacts, issues related to sludge and effluent disposals in the soil environment; legal, health and social impacts of contaminated land, remediation approaches and strategies to manage contaminated land, some of the problems associated with environmental degradation in the Australasia-Pacific Region and steps that we need to take to safeguard our environment.

With an ever-increasing proportion of the world’s population living in cities, soil properties such as salinity, acidity, water retention, erosion and pollution are becoming more significant in urban areas. While these are known issues for agriculture and forestry, as urban development increases, it is essential to recognise the potential of soil properties to create problems for the environment as well as structural concerns for buildings and other engineering works. Understanding Soils in Urban Environments explains how urban soils develop, change and erode. It describes their physical and chemical properties with a focus on specific soil problems that cause environmental damage, such as acid sulfate soils, and also affect the integrity of engineering structural works. This fully revised second edition addresses contemporary issues, including an increase in the use of green roofs and urban green space as well as manufactured soils in a variety of urban environments. Understanding Soils in Urban Environments provides a concise introduction to all aspects of soils in urban environments and will be extremely useful to students in a wide range of disciplines, from soil science and urban forestry and horticulture, to planning, engineering, construction and land remediation, as well as to engineers, builders, landscape architects, ecologists, planners and developers.

Remediation of groundwater is complex and often challenging. But the cost of pump and treat technology, coupled with the dismal results achieved, has paved the way for newer, better technologies to be developed. Among these techniques is permeable reactive barrier (PRB) technology, which allows groundwater to pass through a buried porous barrier that either captures the contaminants or breaks them down. And although this approach is gaining popularity, there are few references available on the subject. Until now. Permeable Reactive Barrier: Sustainable Groundwater Remediation brings together the information required to plan, design/model, and apply a successful, cost-effective, and sustainable PRB technology. With contributions from pioneers in this area, the book covers state-of-the-art information on PRB technology. It details design criteria, predictive modeling, and application to contaminants beyond petroleum hydrocarbons, including inorganics and radionuclides. The text also examines implementation stages such as the initial feasibility assessment, laboratory treatability studies (including column studies), estimation of PRB design parameters, and development of a long-term monitoring network for the performance evaluation of the barrier. It also outlines the predictive tools required for life cycle analysis and cost/performance assessment. A review of current PRB technology and its applications, this book includes case studies that exemplify the concepts discussed. It helps you determine when to recommend PRB, what information is needed from the site investigation to design it, and what regulatory validation is required.

This book focuses on the impact of waste disposal to land, providing an outline of the underpinning knowledge of processes associated with contaminant sorption, transport, and plant uptake. It presents case studies highlighting waste management technologies used in the Australasia-Pacific region.

Arsenic is one of the most toxic and carcinogenic elements in the environment. This book brings together the current knowledge on arsenic contamination worldwide, reviewing the field, highlighting common themes and pointing to key areas needing future research. Contributions discuss methods for accurate identification and quantification of individual arsenic species in a range of environmental and biological matrices and give an overview of the environmental chemistry of arsenic. Next, chapters deal with the dynamics of arsenic in groundwater and aspects of arsenic in soils and plants, including plant uptake studies, effects on crop quality and yield, and the corresponding food chain and human health issues associated with these exposure pathways. These concerns are coupled with the challenge to develop efficient, cost effective risk management and remediation strategies: recent technological advances are described and assessed, including the use of adsorbants, photo-oxidation, bioremediation and electrokinetic remediation. The book concludes with eleven detailed regional perspectives of the extent and severity of arsenic contamination from around the world. It will be invaluable for arsenic researchers as well as environmental scientists and environmental chemists, toxicologists, medical scientists, and statutory authorities seeking an in-depth view of the issues surrounding this toxin.

This four-volume set explores the locations where the environment matters most such as where people are poor, where environments are under threat (such as on frontiers), where there are few natural resources remaining, and where industrialization is rampant. It will also explore these concerns at different system levels, from local-community, to regional, national and global. It will also explore costs of damage to the very resources on which economies rely, and the values of environmental goods and services and the controversies surrounding such valuations. It is organized around environment-people interactions (livelihoods, poverty, income, economic growth); environment-environment interactions (do people matter?); and people-people interactions (collective action challenges, institutions).