Technosol design for land restoration in quarry areas

Open-pit mining usually entails the removal and the final loss of important soil volumes. Although with some local differences, the laws pertinent with that subject would dictate, after the quarry exploitation, the restoration of previous land functions, including soil reconstitution and vegetal cover reinstatement. In particular, the laws recommend with priority to take back and reutilize the soil volumes previously cleared away to reach the rock core. Indeed, it is practically impossible to pursue such a goal, since the soil volumes previously displaced are commonly insufficient to reform a pedological blanket covering all the exposed rock surface. On the other hand, it is clearly incongruent and irrational, from both environmental and pedological standpoints, to utilize soil volumes from other external pedosystems. Bearing these concepts in mind, we considered the co-utilization of earthy by-products with organic amendment, admissible by law, as a convenient pedotechnique base-criterion to rebuild soils in degraded areas such as quarries. The present paper deals with a study-case in Campania region (Southern Italy), where the high litho-mineralogical quality of Apennines limestone favoured the spreading of intense open-pit minings, resulting in dramatically degraded landscapes. On the bases of the different agro-pedoclimatic characteristics and of the socio-economic traditions characterizing the investigated lands, several compatible scenarios for the reinstatement of vegetal cover were identified: olive groves, vineyards, holm-oak wood, ornamental garden, grassland, maquis shrubs. For each scenario, a distinct Technosol with peculiar features suitable to meet the specific crop and management requirements has been designed. A specific designation of Technosol artificial horizons is also proposed.