Contaminated Land and Water (eBook)

This edited volumes contains overviews and case studies of land and water contamination and remediation from international scholars, most from developing countries. ?Contaminated land contains substances that are actually or potentially hazardous to health or the environment. Areas with a long history of industrial production are known as brownfield land. Land contamination can result from a variety of intended, accidental, or naturally occurring activities and events such as manufacturing, mineral extraction, abandonment of mines, national defense activities, waste disposal, accidental spills, illegal dumping, leaking underground storage tanks, hurricanes, floods, pesticide use, and fertilizer application. Chemical contamination of land has degraded this important ecosystem quality. This book provides our current understanding of land pollution and water pollution in areas such as estuaries. Topics presented include major types of pollutants in contaminated land ecosystem; factors affecting the fate of pollutants in contaminated land; biomonitoring approaches to assess the contaminated land health, and chemicals impact on human health, land microbial diversity and climate change. The book further explores persistent organic pollutants, arsenic and heavy metals pollution of contaminated land and their impact on rice quality. The last chapters focus on the sustainable management and treatment of contaminated land and water.