Development of environmental tools for the management of sewage sludge on agricultural soils

The application of sewage sludge from wastewater treatment plants on agricultural soils has become an increasing practice in recent years, derived from its environmental benefits (recycling of organic matter and nutrients). However, there are a few studies regarding the risks and benefits for both t...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Passuello, Ana Carolina
Tipo de recurso: tesis doctoral
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2011
País:España
Institución:CBUC, CESCA
Repositorio:TDR. Tesis Doctorales en Red
OAI Identifier:oai:www.tdx.cat:10803/31940
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10803/31940
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Environmental management
Human risk
Multimedia model
Environmental model
Decision support systems
multicriteria decision analysis
Bayesian networks
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Descripción
Sumario:The application of sewage sludge from wastewater treatment plants on agricultural soils has become an increasing practice in recent years, derived from its environmental benefits (recycling of organic matter and nutrients). However, there are a few studies regarding the risks and benefits for both the environment and the human health, probably because of the complexity of the problem and the high stakeholders’ expectations. The objective of this thesis was to develop methodological tools to support the management of sewage sludge on agricultural soils. Fate, human exposure and health risk models were developed, evaluated and integrated. Furthermore, decision models were built up and integrated into Geographic Information System (GIS) so as to indicate the best agricultural areas to amend with sewage sludge. The use of these tools provides more confident decisions regarding this practice.