Soil remediation and land management: EDAPHOS
Published on 10/05/2023 by Marco De Battista
Soil remediation and land management: introduction
Healthy soils are an essential element for human sustainability, as they play a critical role in food production, water filtration, carbon storage, and overall ecosystem health.
Historically, human societies thrived the most in fertile areas where crops could grow and water was abundant.
Humanity still depends on healthy ecosystems to create a sustainable future for its population.
However, under the mounting pressure of the energetic demands of an ever-increasing population, more and more land becomes constantly endangered under the threat of pollution.
Estimates claim that contaminated sites in Europe (EU) amount to up to 3 million, with an average of more than three sites/km2.
In light of this data, it is paramount to take immediate action to invest in developing and actuating effective soil remediation methods to preserve both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.
The European Union (EU) recognizes this problem as one of the most critical challenges for the future of society. It is currently taking action to incentivize the development of soil remediation methods for contaminated areas, pushing for a green transition in a just and inclusive way.
EU policies aim to achieve an environment where artificial contaminants do not cause significant impacts or risks to human health and surrounding ecosystems.
Advanced mapping, risk assessment and nature-based soil remediation: project description
The project EDAPHOS (the Greek name for soil) aims to establish revolutionary, cutting-edge soil remediation for contaminated lands. Specifically, the aim is to develop a novel framework for land rehabilitation and ecological restoration of degraded areas featuring nature-based solutions (NBS) technologies.
Coordinated by Communauté d’universités et établissements Universités Bourgogne-Franche-Comte in a consortium of 13 public and private organizations, EDAPHOS will improve the monitoring of contaminated soils and the understanding of precise pollution sources at seven selected EU regions.
It will implement advanced remote sensing tools and geographic information systems. Based on the TRIAD concept (integration of chemical, ecological, and ecotoxicological lines of evidence), novel assessment methods and metrics for pollution levels and their risks will be developed and applied.
EDAPHOS will involve performing lab and field studies to validate the technological readiness and the cost-effectiveness of NBS as an effective soil remediation methodology. In addition, artificial intelligence techniques will be implemented throughout the project to improve forecasting and analysis.
Advanced mapping, risk assessment and nature-based soil remediation: our role
Microfluidics technology represents an emerging tool for environmental quality assessment.
We will use our experience in microfluidic development and optimization in collaboration with other consortium partners’ knowledge of ecotoxicological methods.
We will develop a new tool (lab-on-a-chip) to transfer classical toxicity tests to microfluidic technology.
It will allow for validating NBS methods as an effective tool for soil remediation in the medium and long-term perspective.
A key objective is developing a lab-on-a-chip platform for testing ecotoxicity properties. It will involve creating new bioassays, standardizing the methodology for the evaluation of ecological risks, and evaluating the methods for the restoration of contaminated soils, alongside an increase in automation and parallelization of the procedure.
The microfluidic platform will allow the testing of samples in a fully controlled environment regulating key parameters such as the flow rate, temperature, pH, O2, and CO2, as recorded in the test fields.
This project has received funding from the European Union under HORIZON-MISS-2022-SOIL-01 (Research and innovation actions to support the implementation of soil health and food mission) Topic: HORIZON-MISS-2022-SOIL-01-04.
More information on the Horizon Europe Mission Soil program can be found on the website of Ministère de l’Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche (MESR).
Start date: September 1, 2023
End date: August 31, 2027
EU contribution: € 6,992,053.75
