National Workshop: Rehabilitation of contaminated soil and sites

A "National Workshop on the Rehabilitation of Contaminated Soil and Sites" was held in Bucharest on July 2, 2012. The event was organised jointly by the UPSOIL and TIMBRE teams in the venue of the Athenee Palace Hilton Hotel in downtown Bucharest. The aim of the workshop has been to discuss the opportunities for application of innovative technologies within integrated schemes of brownfield management. Experts of the UPSOIL project were to present the innovative approaches to site remediation complemented with presentation of TIMBRE experts on the project's approach to management of degraded land and relevant case studies.

UPOSIL project (Sustainable Soil Upgrading by Developing Cost effective, Biogeochemical Remediation Approaches) and TIMBRE project (Tailored Improvement of Brownfield Regeneration in Europe) are both projects of Seventh Framework Program Theme 6 “Environment (Including Climate Change)”. Find out more about the UPSOIL project here.

More than 50 participants attended the workshop, including 13 from the UPSOIL project and 6 from TIMBRE, and many took active part in the two question and answer sessions of the workshop.

This workshop marked an exciting time for both projects and a well-timed transfer of experience as UPSOIL nears its completion and TIMBRE is close to the middle of its project life. The presentations reflected the accumulated knowledge of the UPSOIL project and focused on topics such as the selection of in situ remediation technologies in terms of cost, time, sustainability and the smart coupling of chemical and biological remediation methods, including its advantages and risks. The TIMBRE project was introduced to the workshop participants in terms of its research goals and unique tailored approach. The contributions of the TIMBRE researchers were summarised with regard to the Romanian test site in Hunedoara and analytically with reference to the expert system and brownfield assessment web platform.

Another important benefit for the meeting was the participation of the National Environmental Protection Agency from Romania – which also is a partner in the TIMBRE consortium – with an updated discussion of “policies and perspectives” in the area of soil rehabilitation in Romania. Most of the discussions centered on this topic as participants were eager to learn how the innovative approaches and technologies developed in both projects can be tailored to the policy requirements and specificities of the Romanian brownfield market