Soil Engineering, Contaminant and Nutrient Management

On successful completion of this short course you will:

• Understand the principles of soil strength/failure and apply this to the physical management of soil
• Understand issues of soil stability and plasticity
• Quantify soil compaction and devise strategies to minimise compaction and/or rectify the problem
• Describe the routes to soil physical and biological damage and devise strategies to minimise degradation and ecosystem disruption
• Evaluate the dynamics of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus as major nutrients in soils
• Identify the pathways of contaminants in soils and their impacts to the ecosystem
• Implement suitable strategies to reduce pollution in soils taking into account the associated risks
• Identify organic wastes, their nutrient contents and risks associated with their application to land.

• Reasons for tillage and land management in land restoration and reclamation
• Basics of soil mechanics: shear strength of soil & Mohr-Coulomb equation, effect of texture, moisture content and density on soil strength; Bearing capacity theory; Soil plasticity, Consistency and Atterberg limits
• Mechanics, assessment and alleviation of soil compaction
• Soil loosening - restoration: case study
• Basic soil implement mechanics; choice of implements for particular operations
• Microbiological, chemical and physical changes in soil during storage
• Risk assessment and treatment of contaminated land (workshop)
• Dynamics and management of soil carbon nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and other nutrients in the context of effective land restoration and reclamation
• Organic manures, properties and management; Risk assessments of wastes spread to land
• Contaminant sources, loadings and impacts.