Abstract
As compared to the environmental compartments air and water, soil is an extremely complicated system. This is caused by the huge variety of soil properties and chemical, physical and biological system conditions. Such variations occur at a number of different scales, e.g. the microscale of organic matter molecules and clay and oxide particles, the scale of soil samples, of soil profiles, and the macro-scale of regions and landscapes as well. These varieties are usually indicated as heterogeneity. The combination of the above makes the development of general rules for quantitative evaluation of soil quality impossible. Large differences of values for the buffering capacity for different soils and all different compounds of interest also play a role in this respect. Soil quality evaluation requires information on dose-effect-relationships with respect to soil functioning, e.g. plant growth, filtering of water, life of soil organisms, playground for children, etcetera. Because such information is still lacking in most cases, soil quality evaluation can usually not be based on quantitative risk assessment.
Two examples for derivation of effect-oriented soil quality standards are briefly discussed. One refers to phytotoxicity of copper in soil. This appears to be controlled by the copper content, in addition to the organic matter content and the pH of the system. All these factors determine the bio-availability of copper with respect to plant uptake. The second example shows the large variety of cadmium contents in soil which may occur in order still to meet water quality standards for cadmium. In this case a number of different properties and conditions act as concentration regulating factors.
In The Netherlands a system of reference values was derived, which refers to compound contents in soil reflecting situations of low degree of contamination. For heavy metals these reference values consist of sliding scales in which the influence of clay content and organic matter content on the metal content is incorporated. These values, in combination with data occurring in practice will be presented.
Consistency of standards for different environmental compartments is a prerequisite for objective environmental policy.
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De Haan, F.A.M., Van Riemsdijk, W.H., Van Der Zee, S.E.A.T.M. (1993). General Concepts of Soil Quality. In: Eijsackers, H.J.P., Hamers, T. (eds) Integrated Soil and Sediment Research: A Basis for Proper Protection. Soil & Environment, vol 1. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-2008-1_40
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-2008-1_40
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