Qualifier Seminar by Mr Paresh Rathod, Dept. of Earth Systems Analysis
Monitoring of Soil Heavy Metal Contamination and Phytoremediation Sites using Remote Sensing Techniques
Mining activities and excessive usage of industrial and domestic sewage sludge poses a serious problem of toxic metal contamination to soils. Various physico-chemical techniques are in use to remediate soil metal contamination. Apart of these, phytoremediation (i.e. use of plant to clean up soil contamination) approach has been recognised as sustainable, eco-friendly and relatively low-cost approach to extract heavy metals into plant parts from the soils. However, long-term monitoring and ecological risk assessment may be needed for phytoremediation system, which require long time to demonstrate their effectiveness, and these also require information on the spatial distribution of soil contamination. The characterization of spatial distribution of contamination, ecological risk and monitoring the phytoremediation system, is exclusively based on soil sampling and chemical analysis, which is time consuming, expensive and may be unfeasible at large scale monitoring. Remote sensing techniques potentially offers many advantages, such as good spatial and temporal coverage and the possibility of measuring many site simultaneously. With the development of hyperspectral remote sensing techniques, it could be feasible to estimate heavy metals in soil and plants using hyperspectral data. Hence, it is worthwhile to investigate the potential of proximal hyperspectral remote sensing for assessing heavy metal contents in soils and monitoring phytoremediation process.
Although, recognized potential of hyperspectral sensing for assessing soil and plant properties, the practical usage of these techniques in monitoring the soil remediation program is in infancy phase due to some of research deficiencies. The direct quantification for heavy metals in soil is yet not investigated. Most predictions for heavy metal have been drawn either through intercorrelations of heavy metal with other spectrally active soil constitutes or by correlating vegetation reflectance spectra with soil contamination. Reflectance spectroscopy has been used in monitoring the plants health during phytoremediation process in several glass house studies, and has also been utilized for determining extent of soil heavy metals contamination. However, referring to literatures, monitoring of full scale phytoremediation site using remote sensing techniques is yet not studied.
Proposed study extends the research on usage of hyperspectral remote sensing techniques in the field of phytoremediation, especially to cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb) and arsenic (As) contamination in soils of Saxony state, Germany. The research approach is to explore suitability of laboratory spectroscopic studies for monitoring phytoremediation sites and to demonstrate cleanliness of remediated sites, and further to investigate the physico-chemical mechanism that allows estimation of heavy metal through spectral signature of soils and plants. The study could provide foundation for estimating heavy metal concentrations in soils and plants with air-borne or space-borne hyperspectral remote sensing. The expected outcome could be used in phytoremediation system for contaminant mapping and uptake monitoring.
| Timesheet | |
|---|---|
| Event starts: | Tuesday 11 May 2010 at 15:30 |
| Event ends: | Tuesday 11 May 2010 at 17:00 |
| Venue: | room 3-008 |
| Organized by: | Academic Affairs |
| City where event takes place: | Enschede |