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Plenary Lecture
Evaluating and Planning Waste Landfill Top Covers with the Help of
Vegetation and Population Ecology
Professor Brigitte Klug1
Co-authors: Johannes Tintner2, Marion Huber-Humer2
1: Department of Integrative Biology and Biodiversity Research
2: Department of Water, Atmosphere, and Environment
University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences (BOKU)
Gregor-Mendel-Stra?e 33, 1180 Vienna
AUSTRIA
| Abstract:
The accumulation of solid waste has caused
remarkable problems for environment and public health, and authorities
have to tackle the costly recycling, reduction, and management of
solid waste. Nevertheless, the area occupied by landfills is steadily
growing. It is an urgent need to avoid toxic impacts such as landfill
gas or leachate arising from old landfills, and to find
environmentally friendly after-uses for the sites. The co-operation of
botany and waste management shows viable practices for the future:
Phytosociological releves of the (spontaneous or seeded) vegetation on
old landfills can indicate not only the quality of the top cover, but
also gaps in the cover where methane or leachate emerges. This
information helps companies and authorities to take appropriate steps
of sanitation. Well-kept old landfills may be re-integrated into the
production of energy plants or fibre plants. Another possible
after-use would be a park for recreation. In this case, special care
has to be taken for selecting local tree and shrub species with
suitable demands and a superficial root system. In regions where rare
ecosystems in the vicinity of a landfill are threatened by extinction,
one can think of a re-establishment of those ecosystems. By providing
a suitable top cover and introducing species of the threatened
ecosystem, it is possible to trigger a succession towards this.
Nevertheless, steady monitoring of the vegetation development and the
soil seed bank is necessary to guarantee success. A new experimental
field for botanists and ecological engineers is re-vegetation on
combustion slag. To reduce the volume of waist, some municipalities
have chosen this method recently instead of mechanical-biological
waste treatment. Re-cultivating combustion slag causes many ecological
problems, and this is one of the challenges for the future.
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Brief Biography of the Speaker::
Date and place of birth: Jan 6,1947, Innsbruck, Tyrol, Austria.
Studies of botany and zoology, University of Innsbruck, 1966-1973.
Additional studies of forestry, University of Applied Life Sciences and Renewable Resources (BOKU), Vienna, 1973-1974.
1974-1980: Researcher, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna: MaB-High Mountain Project Hohe Tauern
1978: Birth of 1st son
1980-1982: Research Assistant, Institute of Game Research, Veterinary University of Vienna.
1982: Birth of 2nd son.
1986-1991: Research assistant, Institute of Botany, BOKU.
1991: Habilitation.
1991-2007: Assistant professor, Institute of Botany, BOKU.
Fields of research:
Ecology of alpine plants, restoration ecology, diaspore ecology, phenology, production ecology
Latest projects:
2001-…:Symphenology of oak-hornbeam forests in the “Wienerwald” (Vienna forest)
2005: Plant ecological research as a basis for a restoration concept at the landfill site Rautenweg (Vienna)
2005: Actual above ground vegetation and diaspore communities on re-vegetated ski runs in the Austrian Alps.
2006-2007: Diaspore communities in successional states of an oak-hornbeam forest in Lower Austria
2006-2007: Above ground vegetation and diaspore communities on an artificially greened solid waste landfill and in the surrounding semi-dry meadows in Lower Austria.
2007: Influence of pasturage on herbaceous and woody successional plants in the Kamp valley 4 years after the flood disaster.
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