title: Brownfields to green fields: Realising wider benefits from practical contaminant phytomanagement strategies.
abstract: Gentle remediation options (GROs) are risk management strategies or technologies involving plant (phyto-), fungi (myco-), and/or bacteria-based methods that result in a net gain (or at least no gross reduction) in soil function as well as effective risk management. GRO strategies can be customised along contaminant linkages, and can generate a range of wider economic, environmental and societal benefits in contaminated land management (and in brownfields management more widely). The application of GROs as practical on-site remedial solutions is still limited however, particularly in Europe and at trace element (typically metal and metalloid) contaminated sites. This paper discusses challenges to the practical adoption of GROs in contaminated land management, and outlines the decision support tools and best practice guidance developed in the European Commission FP7-funded GREENLAND project aimed at overcoming these challenges. The GREENLAND guidance promotes a refocus from phytoremediation to wider GROs- or phyto-management based approaches which place realisation of wider benefits at the core of site design, and where gentle remediation technologies can be applied as part of integrated, mixed, site risk management solutions or as part of "holding strategies" for vacant sites. The combination of GROs with renewables, both in terms of biomass generation but also with green technologies such as wind and solar power, can provide a range of economic and other benefits and can potentially support the return of low-level contaminated sites to productive usage, while combining GROs with urban design and landscape architecture, and integrating GRO strategies with sustainable urban drainage systems and community gardens/parkland (particularly for health and leisure benefits), has large potential for triggering GRO application and in realising wider benefits in urban and suburban systems. Quantifying these wider benefits and value (above standard economic returns) will be important in leveraging funding for GRO application and soft site end-use more widely at vacant or underutilized sites.
authors.affiliation: School of Environment and Technology, University of Brighton, Brighton, UK. Electronic address: A.Cundy@soton.ac.uk.
authors.forename: A B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Cundy
authors.affiliation: School of Environment and Technology, University of Brighton, Brighton, UK; r3 Environmental Technology Ltd., Reading, UK.
authors.forename: R P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Bardos
authors.affiliation: University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), A-3430 Tulln, Austria.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Puschenreiter
authors.affiliation: BIOGECO, INRA, Univ. Bordeaux, 33615 Pessac, France.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mench
authors.affiliation: INERIS, Clean and Sustainable Technologies and Processes Unit, DRC/RISK, Parc Technologique Alata, BP2, 60550 Verneuil en Halatte, France.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Bert
authors.affiliation: AIT Austrian Institute of Technology - GmbH, Health & Environment Department, 3430 Tulln, Austria.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Friesl-Hanl
authors.affiliation: Saxon State Office for Environment, Agriculture and Geology, D-01109 Dresden, Germany.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Müller
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences (RCEES), Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, PR China; Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, PR China.
authors.forename: X N
authors.initials: XN
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Centre for Environmental Sciences (CMK), Hasselt University, 3590 Diepenbeek, Belgium.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Weyens
authors.affiliation: Centre for Environmental Sciences (CMK), Hasselt University, 3590 Diepenbeek, Belgium.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Witters
authors.affiliation: Centre for Environmental Sciences (CMK), Hasselt University, 3590 Diepenbeek, Belgium.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vangronsveld
mesh_terms: D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D003661:Decision Support Techniques; D004787:Environmental Pollution; D005060:Europe; D019216:Metals, Heavy / Q000032:analysis; D010944:Plants; D012308:Risk Management / Q000379:methods; D012988:Soil Microbiology; D012989:Soil Pollutants / Q000032:analysis; D014131:Trace Elements / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D019216:Metals, Heavy; D012989:Soil Pollutants; D014131:Trace Elements
keywords: Brownfields; Contaminated land; Decision support tools; Gentle remediation options; Heavy metals; Phytomanagement; Phytoremediation