Materials to Land: Supporting better regulation and sustainable soil use decisions

将适当的废物和废物衍生材料，包括生物固体，回收到土地上，是养分和土壤改良剂的一个重要来源，降低了工业和土地管理者的成本，同时提高了资源效率。这是一个不断增长的市场，用于制造这些产品的源材料越来越多样化，但它们也可能在其组成方面提出挑战，例如含有潜在的有毒元素。因此，重要的是，这些材料的土地传播不会对人类健康和环境造成不可接受的风险。土壤的化学成分因自然（地质）和污染（人为）元素来源的输入而变化很大。因此，有很大的浓度变化的景观，所示的大型系统的国家土壤地球化学数据集在BGS，从NERC资助的科学计划。这些突出了一些岩层如何完全自然地在特定地区产生铅，镉和镍等元素浓度升高的土壤。还有明显的人为影响，城市中心和历史采矿区往往具有较高的这些元素的浓度，除其他外。我们已经建立，与项目合作伙伴，土壤数据提供了机会，以支持多个尺度的知情决策，通过绘制预测的土壤化学成分之间的采样点。能够在未取样的地点进行预测，对于考虑施用这些有机材料的候选地点可能的土壤组成是很重要的。这一方法不仅提供关于预测浓度的信息，而且还表明任何特定预测所具有的可信度（利用地质统计学）。我们将使用选定的化学元素为英格兰证明这一点。这种方法特别适用于监管机构（环境署（EA）），其中缺乏这类信息目前正在创造一个政策挑战。土壤预测将在当地范围内进行审查，以支持环境局对许可证申请的决定，但也可供农业企业和销售商使用，以进行初步评估，帮助他们决定土地是否适合接受特定材料，以及更普遍的土壤质量保护。全国农民联盟也是项目合作伙伴，以帮助生产对农民有帮助的产品。在区域/国家范围内，这些地图将有利于环境局和食品标准局对土壤化学质量以及这些可能对人类和环境健康造成的任何风险进行战略性、区域性评估，无论是现在还是在可以用这些地图输出进行测试的合理情景下。持续的组织间和个人间沟通将确保项目的成功进展，这些有效的网络将在资助后继续。我们将通过与我们项目合作伙伴中的相关机构以及与他们有联系的其他代表机构进行接触，确保广泛的知名度和吸收。整合监管责任人和农业部门代表的反馈意见将有助于农业利益攸关方理解的产出。我们已确保在项目供资以外的产出可持续地在网上托管，产出将免费提供。该方法将作为一个范例，在英国的权力下放的管理和超越，以及其他污染物的关注和数据成为可用。关键词：土壤;生物固体;污染物;监管;农业。

Recovery of appropriate waste and waste-derived materials, including biosolids, to land is an important source of nutrients and soil improvers, reducing costs to both industry and land managers, while improving resource efficiency. This is an increasing market, with a widening diversity of source materials being used to create these products, but they may also present challenges in relation to their composition, for instance by containing potentially toxic elements. It is thus important that the landspreading of these materials does not lead to unacceptable risks to human health and the environment. The chemical composition of soils varies greatly due to inputs from both natural (geological) and contaminant (anthropogenic) sources of elements. Therefore, there are substantial concentration variations over the landscape, as demonstrated by the large systematic national soil geochemistry datasets held in BGS, from NERC funded science programmes. These highlight how some rock formations give rise, entirely naturally, to soils with elevated concentrations of elements such as lead, cadmium and nickel in specific areas. There are also clear anthropogenic influences, with urban centres and historical mining areas often having elevated concentrations of these elements, amongst others.We have established, with project partners, that the soil data present opportunity to support informed decision making at multiple scales, through mapping predicted of soil chemical composition between the sampled sites. Being able to predict at unsampled locations is important to consider what the likely soil composition may be at a candidate site for application of these organic materials. This approach would provide information not only on predicted concentrations, but an indication of the confidence that any given prediction has attached to it (using the science of geostatistics). We will demonstrate this for England, using selected chemical elements.This methodology is particularly applicable to the regulator (Environment Agency (EA), where a paucity of this type of information is currently creating a policy challenge. The soil predictions will be examined at a local scale to support EA decisions on licence applications, but can also be used by farming businesses, and sellers, to make a preliminary assessment to help inform their decisions on the likely suitability of land to receive a given material, and more general protection of soil quality. The National Farmers Union are also project partners, to help produce outputs which will help farmers. On a regional/national scale these maps will benefit the EA and the Food Standards Agency in making strategic, regional, assessments of soil chemical quality and any risks these may present to human and environmental health, now or under plausible scenarios which can be tested with these mapped outputs. Sustained inter-organisational and inter-personal communication will ensure successful project progress and these effective networks will be continued post-funding. We will ensure wide visibility and uptake through engaging with relevant bodies within our project partners, and with other representative bodies with which they have links. Integration of feedback from both those with regulatory responsibilities and representatives of the farming sector will support outputs which are comprehensible to farming stakeholders. We have ensured sustainable web-hosting of outputs beyond project funding, and outputs will be available free-of-charge. The methodology will serve as an exemplar across the UK's devolved administrations and beyond, as well as for other contaminants which are of concern and for which data becomes available.KEYWORDS: soil; biosolids; contaminants; regulation; farming.