Abstract
Soil is the essential growing medium for our food, timber and other crops. It helps to shape our landscape and supports diverse ecological systems. It also absorbs rainfall, delaying its movement into watercourses, and filters or transforms chemicals that pass through it, preventing them from ending up in water or air. Construction work results in the disturbance of large volumes of soil resources annually. Topsoils may be stripped and stored peripherally for re-use, because up to half of development areas are returned to vegetated uses, but can become damaged by mechanised handling. Surpluses of topsoil might be exported from site for use elsewhere. Subsoils may remain in place but often become compact and impermeable. Any damage to soil quality affects the long-term functioning of the soils and has an impact not only on ecological diversity and the performance and visual quality of the vegetated areas but can have impacts off-site such as on flooding, aquifer recharge and water quality. The First Soil Action Plan for England, 2004-06 (DEFRA, 2004) recognises that there is a need to improve soil management practice on construction sites and identify opportunities for the sustainable use of soil material. Consequently this project will: · Review current practices of soil management on construction and development sites, · Document good and bad practice, · Identify constraints to sustainable soil use and re-use, whether economic or planning-related, · Describe current best practice, and · Make recommendations on how to improve sustainable soil use at construction and development sites. Much of the research will be based on case studies at sites across England and the project aims to produce a Good Practice Note on sustainable soil use on construction and development sites.
United Kingdom