Risk Areas In The Application Of Sewage Sludge On Degraded Soils In The Province Of Alicante (Spain)

Abstract

Restoration of degraded soils with organic wastes could be a feasible practice to minimise erosion in the Mediterranean area, but this practice shows a risk of soil and groundwater pollution. Currently the use of sewage sludge to improve the nutrient contents of a soil is a common practice. The soil leaching in which a great amount of fertilizers is usually applied, favours the solubilization of inorganic compounds. In order to study the mobility of some of these elements through the soil, we have designed an experiment that tries to reproduce the behaviour of different compounds and heavy metals in the soil as a part of the non-saturated zone. A controlled experiment in a greenho