The Contaminated Land Assessment and Remediation Research Centre (CLARRC) was founded by the University of Edinburgh, Napier University and the Scottish Universities' Research and Reactor Centre (SURRC) on the premise that effective contaminated land management requires co-operation and communication across many scientific and engineering disciplines.
In addition to carrying out "blue-skies" research, CLARRC sees industrial relevance as an essential objective. Close liaison with a broad spectrum of organisations involved in contaminated land management is fundamental to the operation of CLARRC. The centre offers a full range of expertise from site assessment and modelling, through "proof of concept", to the provision
of appropriate solutions for the environmental industry.
The areas of activity of the Centre are:-
- Site Investigation / Risk Assessment
Desk studies, geophysical survey techniques, remote sensing. Assessment of risks to human health and ecological impacts associated with contamination in complex and heterogeneous environments.
- Remedial Technologies
R & D of sustainable, cost-effective, physical, chemical and biological techniques for contaminated soil and groundwater remediation.
- Cost/Benefit Analysis
Environmental valuation and cost-benefit analysis; economics of pollution control and sustainable development
- Environmental Modelling
State-of-the-art models for assessing the fate, transport and persistence / natural attenuation of chemicals in contaminated land, air and groundwater.
- Environmental Chemistry
Interactions, transport and fate of heavy metals, radionuclides, nutrients and organic compounds in the environment
- Ecotoxicology and Environmental Impact Assessment
Toxic effects of natural or synthetic chemical pollutants on animal, plant or microbial ecosystems and their routes into affected organisms. Use of biomarkers and micro-bial biosensors in both acute and chronic toxicity assessments.
- Landfill Engineering
Geotechnical engineering, e.g., engineering analysis of landfill settlement. Engineering properties of soil, rock and fluids relating to the movement, containment and fate of contaminants in engineered landfills.
- Examples of current projects within CLARRC include:
- Assessment of novel in-situ remediation techniques
- Bioremediation of diesel-contaminated soils
- Biosurfactant-enhanced bioremediation
- Engineering analysis of landfill settlement
- Geophysical investigations of contaminated land
- Modelling of biogeochemical transformations of petroleum contaminants in soils
- Modelling subsurface flow and contaminant migration pathways
- Prediction of natural attenuation feasibility in complex biogeochemical environments
- Risk assessment related to health effects of contaminated land
- Use of radionuclides and stable isotopes to study the environmental migration of contaminants
Contaminated Land Assessment and Remediation Research Centre