Scholarly record

COMMUNITY FORESTRY ON REMEDIATED LANDFILL SITE

Kaur-Mikk Pehme

Abstract

One of the possible solutions to reduce or eliminate landfill gas emissions is to cover the landfill with bioactive cover layer, where methane is oxidized in-situ. The main innovation of the closure project at Kudjape landfill, Estonia, was to extract the < 40 mm fine fraction from the same landfill cell by using landfill mining technology in order to construct a methane degradation cover and to restore the previous landfill area for the benefit of the community. European larch (Larix decidua) and Norway spruce (Picea abies) were planted into the cover layer to create community forest. Along with vegetation the multi-purpose sporting trails were designed on the remediated landfill to return it into public service. The aim of the research was to investigate whether anthropogenic cover material is suitable as growing media for trees and to study which characteristics have influence on their growth. Vegetation has been monitored during three years. Soon after planting it was noticed that some of the trees were not adapting to the environment. Two years later, 60 % of larches and 40 % of spruces had died off. The annual increment of survived trees was 6-7 times less than in regular conditions, referring on variety of stress factors. According to the results, the methane degradation layer which is made from excavated fine fraction serves very well for degradation of methane but is challenging as growing media. The research continues to monitor the processes within the methane degradation cover layer in order to study if vegetation improves methane degradation. Corrective measures, undertaken to replace die-off trees, refer on better possibilities for vegetation if smaller trees are planted, particularly with better root: soot ratio. Tree species should be selected on different bases compared to regular forestation. As the organic-rich cover layer mineralises in time, growing conditions are expected to improve in coming years.

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DOI resolver: doi.org/10.5593/sgem2018/5.2/s20.027

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