Municipal solid waste landfill: Evidence of the effect of applied landfill management on vegetation composition

Abstract

Proper management of municipal solid waste (MSW) is crucial to avoid pollution, environmental impacts and threat to public health. The problem of MSW is mainly arising from inadequate landfill site management. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of management practices and environmental risks at two landfill sites. The landfills were subject to long-term (10 years) vegetation monitoring. The vegetation was assessed using a floristic survey of identified plant species. The vegetation analysis showed that significant differences existed between the two landfill locations, with neophytes, invasive and expansive species dominating on one of the landfill sites, which may be attributed to climatic and geomorphological differences between the two sites, but also to variations in landfill management. These environmentally problematic species can potentially spread from the landfill into adjacent ecosystems, displace native plants and degrade adjacent farmland areas. The study of vegetation monitoring data suggests that, in addition to other types of monitoring, landfills should be subjected to regular vegetation biomonitoring, too. Landfill management practices should target the regulation of unwanted species, create conditions that are favourable to native plant species and provide as early as possible the restoration of filled cells.

Assessment of Selected Landfill Impacts on Selected Segments of the Environment – A Case Study

“…Architectura, 22, 38-49, doi: 10.22630/ASPA.2023.22.5 aspa.sggw.edu.pl air and, at the same time, contributes to the improvement of air quality. Due to the fact that the reclamation of the landfill by planting grass poses a potential threat in the presence of various allergenic pollens, reclamation by afforestation is recommended, if possible (Vaverková et al, 2022). Nevertheless, grasses are of great importance in terms of nutrient exchange in the soil and water infiltration.…”

“…This is primarily due to the creation of leachate and landfill gas (Vaverková, 2019;Shammas, Wang, Wang & Chen, 2020;Rasapoor, Young, Brar & Baroutian, 2021). These two factors can negatively affect the surroundings of the landfill (Podlasek, Jakimiuk, Vaverkova & Koda, 2021;Winkler et al, 2021;Koda et al, 2022;Vaverková et al, 2022). Although nowadays landfills are designed and operated in such a way as to eliminate this risk, the problem lies in the lifetime of the landfill, which is many times longer than the operation of the landfill (Madon et al, 2019;Kamaruddin et al, 2021).…”

“…Landfill monitoring is necessary after the closure of a landfill, and in recent years, the interest of the scientific community in issues related to the responses of living organisms to the emitted pollutants -the so-called biomonitoring -is growing (Rumbold & Mihalik, 2002;Winkler et al, 2021;Jafarova, Contardo, Aherne & Loppi, 2022;Koda et al, 2022;Vaverková et al, 2022). Plant reactions are manifested, for example, by changes in behaviour, appearance, or frequency of occurrence (Winkler et al, 2021;Koda et al, 2022;Vaverková et al, 2022). Thanks to this, possible negative environmental effects can be recognised early on, and thus solved.…”

Remodeling of Abandoned Land: A Review of Landscape Regeneration and the Reconstruction of Urban Landfill Sites

“…In addition to the developed countries in Europe and the US, which have been the dominant research force, other developed countries in Asia and Oceania, such as Korea, Israel, and Japan [25][26][27], have also launched in-depth studies in this field, providing a variety of research approaches. In addition to research on site pollution control, landscape regeneration design, and postrenovation benefit assessments, research on social aspects such as site selection and the participation of multiple actors in site renovation and post-renovation operations has also been further developed at this stage [28][29][30]. The amount of literature on the theme of the participation of multiple subjects reached 88, which is four times that for the previous theme and accounts for 6% of the literature at this stage; the number of literature on the theme of site selection reached 45, which is twice as many as the previous theme and accounts for 5% of the literature at this stage.…”

Environmental and Architectural Solutions in the Problem of Waste Incineration Plants in Poland: A Comparative Analysis

“…The massive increase in the production of municipal solid waste (MSW) has accelerated the need to implement incineration plants into the waste management system [8,9]. The technology of municipal waste incineration is used to minimise landfill space [10,11] and reduce the amount of waste, typically in incineration plants or waste-to-energy facilities.…”