DEVELOPING SUSTAINABLE MEASURES TO RESTORE FLY ASH CONTAMINATED LANDS:
CURRENT CHALLENGES AND FUTURE PROSPECTS
Abstract
Land degradation is one of the major global environmental issues that
need serious attention. The land itself is a complex system regulating
myriads of processes and perturbation in anyone these would certainly
lead to the stimulation of land degradation. Among these, fly ash (FA)
dumping is one of the common-practices, which has been adopted to
overcome land-use disruption and other health hazards. However, this
practice has become a driving factor for FA-induced land degradation.
Therefore, in purview to tackle this issue, the present article is aimed
to identify and suggest plausible sustainable practices to restore and
manage FA contaminated sites. It preliminarily deals with the systematic
exploration and identification of FA-based and associated contaminated
lands via geospatial technology with a brief focus on monitoring its
different contaminant profiles in the FA and soil systems. Moreover, the
article emphasizes identifying the potential local plant species in the
FA-contaminated regions to understand the local people’s demands.
Following this, it would suggest the major sustainable approaches to
expedite the restoration of FA contaminated lands along with the key
highlights of their bottlenecks, while the ground implementation.
Nevertheless, the article aimed to unravel the recommended prospects to
address those bottlenecks to develop an efficient restoration enterprise
during the Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030).