Crop‐based systems for sustainable risk‐based land management for economically marginal damaged land

Abstract

The increasing need for biomass for energy and feedstocks, along with the need to divert organic methane generating wastes from landfills, may provide the economic leverage necessary to return this type of marginal land to functional and economic use and is strongly supported by policy at the European Union (EU) level. The use of land to produce biomass for energy production or feedstocks for manufacturing processes (such as plastics and biofuels) has, however, become increasingly contentious, with a number of environmental, economic, and social concerns raised.The REJUVENATE project has developed a decision support framework to help land managers and other decision makers identify potential concerns related to sustainability and what types of biomass reuse for marginal land might be possible, given their particular circumstances. The decision-making framework takes a holistic approach to decision making rather than viewing biomass production simply as an adjunct of a planned phytoremediation project. The framework is serviceable in Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. These countries have substantive differences in their land and biomass reuse circumstances. However, all can make use of the set of common principles of crop, site, value, and project risk management set out by REJUVENATE. This implies that the framework should have wider applicability across the EU. This article introduces the decision support framework. O c 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. INTRODUCTIONThe use of land to produce biomass for energy production or feedstocks for manufacturing processes (such as plastics and biofuels) has become increasingly contentious, with a number of environmental, economic, and social concerns raised. Across Europe there are areas of land that have been damaged by past use. These include brownfields 1 and land affected by contamination. In a large number of situations this land is derelict or underutilized because its restoration is uneconomic or unsustainable using conventional methods. This economically stalled land is described as "marginal land" within this article.There are estimated to be close to one million potential brownfield sites across the European Union (EU; Oliver et al., 2005). The European Environment Agency (EEA) has also collated information regarding the quantity of land contaminated by point sources in Europe. In August 2007, the EEA (EEA, 2007) would require cleanup, with potentially polluting activities having occurred at nearly 3 million sites, and the number of sites was projected to increase. The EEA's report concluded that "although considerable efforts have been made already, it will take decades to clean up a legacy of contamination.""Although considerable efforts have been made already, it will take decades to clean up a legacy of contamination."The extent of diffuse contamination is less well known as evidenced by the European Commission's (EC's) 2010 report, European Environment State and Outlook on Soil (EC, 2010), but appears to be a substantial problem. For example, across tw...

Chelant-Assisted Accumulation of Cd, Cu, and Zn in Rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) Biomass as a Renewable Energy Feedstock

“…Thus marginal lands, including the ones with HM contamination, receive more attention. [22][23] Unlike valuable seeds, B. napus straw is considered as field residue and usually is left on soil surface [24]. Nonetheless, summer rapeseed produces more straw biomass from hectare in comparison to such crops as wheat (Triticum spp.…”

Brownfields to green fields: Realising wider benefits from practical contaminant phytomanagement strategies

“…(e.g. Bardos et al, 2011, Andersson-Skold et al, 2014. Technical information from the GREENLAND demonstration sites provides evidence of the effectiveness of GRO in the medium to longer term under varying site contexts and conditions throughout Europe, and data for economic and other assessments, which are included in this DST to help regulators, consultants, site managers and planners develop practical strategies for GRO application across Europe.…”

“…Within this tool, we provide links to three matrices/modules: The European Union FP7 HOMBRE project (grant 265097, www.zerobrownfields.eu) Brownfield Opportunity Matrix (BOM) -an Excel-based qualitative screening tool to help decision makers identify which services they can obtain from "soft reuse" interventions (including GRO) at a site, and how these services interact; The SuRF-UK indicator sets (with further links to external analysis software resources), which provide a semi-quantitative ranking system based on key economic, environmental and social indicators (Bardos et al, 2011), and an outline cost calculator, developed within the GREENLAND project, which incorporates user-entered cost data to estimate the economic value proposition of GRO at a particular site (discussed further below).…”

“…Bardos et al, 2010), as well as widespread use of "green" technologies such as landscaping, application of green covers, reedbeds and constructed wetlands in remediation or industrial/urban regeneration projects. Nevertheless, the application of GRO as practical on-site remedial solutions is still in its relative infancy, particularly (a) in Europe, and (b) for trace element contaminated sites.…”

Phytomanagement: Phytoremediation and the Production of Biomass for Economic Revenue on Contaminated Land

“…In practice, it is not possible to perform experimental trials in each specifi c case. However, the results of many pot and fi eld studies in which plants have been grown on polluted soils have been integrated into model-based decision support systems (DSS), such as REC-Phyto-DSS (Onwubuya et al 2009 ), Phyto-DSS (Robinson et al 2003a ), and Phyto-3 (Bardos et al 2011 ).These can be of great help in the evaluation, design, and operation of site-adapted phytoremediation schemes. All the mentioned DSS either use a multi-criteria analysis or life cycle analysis or both.…”