Phytocapping of Landfills: An Australian Ezperience
Landfills have been the major repositories of urban wastes, and they will continue to be built, so long as the humans live in communities. The costs of construction, maintenance and remediation of landfills have escalated over the years and research is therefore required to identify alternative techniques that will not only minimise the costs but also demonstrate increased environmental performance and community benefits. An alternative landfill capping technique known as Phytocapping (establishment of perennial plants on a layer of soil placed over the waste) was trialled in Rockhampton, Australia. In this technique, trees were used as bio-pumps and rainfall interceptors and soil cover as storage of water. Tree performance was measured based on their canopy rainfall interception and water uptake potential. The percolation rate was estimated using HYDRUS 1D for two different scenarios (with and without vegetation) for the thick and thin covers respectively. Results from the simulations incorporating 15 years of meteorological data showed percolation rates of 16.7 mm yr-1 in thick cover and 23.8 mm yr-1 in thin cover, both of which are markedly lower than those expected from a clay cap.
phytocapping transpiration landfills tree species bio-pumps canopy interception methane site water balance HYDRUS 1D
K.Venkatraman N.Ashwath
Centre for Plant and Water Science, CQ University, Rockhampton, Qld 4702 Kartik Venkatraman, Centre Centre for Plant and Water Science, CQ University, Rockhampton, Qld 4702
国际会议
5th International Phytotechnologies Conference(第五届国际植物技术大会)
南京
英文
111-125
2008-10-22（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）