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The effects of pipeline construction disturbance on soil properties and restoration cycle

Environmental Monitoring and Assessment volume 186, pages 1825–1835 (2014)Cite this article

Abstract

Disturbance to the physical–chemical properties of soil caused by pipeline installation was evaluated using two soil quality indices to identify the scale of disturbance and the restoration cycle. The integrated soil quality index (SQI) was used to evaluate soil property changes in different pipeline zones (0, 10, 20, and 50 m from the pipeline) at sites 1 and 2. The soil restoration index (SRI) was used to estimate soil recovery from three pipelines with different recovery periods (2, 6, and 8 years) at site 3. The results showed that the adverse effects of pipeline construction on soil properties mainly occurred in the right-of-way (ROW) areas and the impaired zones were in the order trench > piling and working areas > 20 and 50 m. The soil restoration cycle may be complete within 6 years of construction. At site 3, the SRI in the ROW area of a pipeline after 6 years of restoration was close to 100 %, showing full soil recovery. However, the SRI in the disturbed areas of a pipeline after 2 years of restoration was much lower than that after 6 years of restoration, indicating that the soil was still recovering from the disturbance. The topography may change the intensity of disturbance in different areas due to the movement patterns of heavy machinery and traffic routes. There were local variations in the SQI within the pipeline zones, with flat areas suffering greater disturbance than hilly areas, indicating that topography should be considered in a pipeline’s environmental impact assessment.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the Industry Research Project on Environmental Protection (201209029). The author also would like to thank Dr. Wenlin Chen for his valuable suggestion and for polishing the English.

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Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, China

    Peng Shi, Jun Xiao, Ya-Feng Wang & Li-Ding Chen

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Peng Shi & Jun Xiao

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  1. Peng Shi
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  2. Jun Xiao
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  3. Ya-Feng Wang
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  4. Li-Ding Chen
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Correspondence to Li-Ding Chen.

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Shi, P., Xiao, J., Wang, YF. et al. The effects of pipeline construction disturbance on soil properties and restoration cycle. Environ Monit Assess 186, 1825–1835 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-013-3496-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-013-3496-5

Keywords

  • Environmental impact assessment
  • Distance
  • Disturbance
  • Pipeline
  • Soil quality
  • Restoration cycle