land management, risk analysis and assessment, soil and groundwater remediation technologies, environmental monitoring and modelling
keywords:
sustainability, brownfields, revitalisation
CEDAR develops and implements an integrated, interactive and multidisciplinary approach to brownfields redevelopment.
Plants as heavy metal accumulators - CEDAR works out environmentally friendly and cost effective technologies for environmental restoration.
CEDAR at the Institute for Ecology of Industrial Areas in Katowice, Poland.
Research focus of the Centre:
land management and spatial planning to optimise land use in urban areas,
development of principles for identification and inventory of degraded sites,
methods to mitigate human and environmental risk associated with on-going and abandoned industrial activities,
risk analysis and assessment to develop a ranking of the identified sites and prioritise them with respect to rehabilitation needs and determining their future use,
development, promotion and implementation of cost - effective and environmentally friendly technologies for soil and groundwater remediation,
legal and institutional settings of brownfields rehabilitation,
land life cycle analysis and assessment,
integrated environmental monitoring combined with geostatistical analysis,
innovative solutions for safe disposal of solid wastes, including hazardous wastes,
concepts of rehabilitating of landfill sites,
air pollution as source of human exposure,
deposition of air pollutants in the aspect of soil and water contamination,
sustainable management of river basins.
Polish research projects currently run in the Centre:
RTD projects focused on sustainable development for all levels of governmental administration, local governments, industry, RTD units, consulting firms, others, including:
National Long-Term Action Plan "Environment and Health", adopted by the Government of Poland in June 2001;
Long-Term Environmental Action Plan for the Upper Silesia Region and policy directions up to the year 2005;
Intersectoral Governmental Program, Part "Environment and Health" aimed at development and implementation of strategic environmental impact assessment methods as new tools of environmental management;
Development of a concept of an national long-term action plan for sustainable redevelopment of degraded areas.
European research projects currently run in the Centre:
The Centre was partnering in international consortia of 3 projects under EU PHARE Programme and 2 projects under the EU FP4. In EU FP5 CEDAR as partner of international consortia submitted a total of 30 projects. Presently, CEDAR's researchers participate in 9 FP5 projects, four of which are as follows:
Project PHYTODEC "A Decision Support System to Quantify Cost/benefit Relationships of the Use of Vegetation in the Management of Heavy Metal Polluted Soils and Dredged Sediments"; Co-ordinator: Alterra B.V. Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Project WELCOME "Development of Integrated Management System for Prevention and Reduction of Pollution of Water Bodies at Contaminated Industrial Megasites", Co-ordinator: TNO-MEP, The Netherlands.
Project CABERNET "Concerted Action on Brownfield and Economic Regeneration Network", Co-ordinator: University of Nottingham, UK.
Quality:
Location of the CEDAR in Upper Silesia Region - one of the most industrial and urbanised areas of Europe, resulted that the Centre gained a unique experience in solving the most complex environmental issues.
Subsequent contributions to the advancement or the understanding of environmental problems made by the Centre during the past years focused especially on the following issues:
make risk analysis and assessment an inseparable branch of environmental studies as well as decision making processes,
understanding and deepening the knowledge on the cause - reaction chain of pollutant migration in the environment to identify primary pollution sources and their impacts,
understanding of mechanisms, which govern the transformation of pollutants in the environment towards development of an integrated environmental modelling,
development of methodology for qualitative as well as quantitative prognoses to foresee and prevent negative phenomena in the environment,
adding a new dimension to environmental studies through combining environmental aspects with socio-economic and human health issues to support implementation of the sustainability principle in environmental management,
improving technologies, which help preventing contamination of environment, inhibit its further spread and finally serve for restoration of environment's original quality.
Equipment:
Among research equipment of CEDAR worth mentioning are the following ones:
the in-situ as well as ex-situ soil remediation demonstration fields (28 000m2),
integrated monitoring station in Brenna-Leśnica,
air pollution monitoring station in Katowice-Załęże, incorporated into the European network, as well as of Telemetric Measurements Station of Air Quality - OPSIS - System,
ISO 9001 certified laboratory facilities enabling complex analyses of plant, soil, water, air, sludge, waste samples as well as laboratory facilities dedicated to specific research activities (microbiological lab, water lab, air lab and phytoremediation lab),
sites for pot experiments, lysimeter sampling or micro-field tests carried out in open space, foil tunnels or small green-houses,
library (over 9.000 volumes) and IETU/Centre's non-published scientific reports,
access to intranet and internet.
Human resources:
CEDAR research staff consists of 41 researchers including 6 professors and associate professors, 22 senior researchers with Ph.D. or D.Sc. degrees and 9 young researchers. The scientific and engineering personnel of the Centre represents a wide variety of scientific disciplines: ecology, biology, microbiology, environmental engineering, environmental chemistry, pharmacy, economics, physics, computer science, mathematics and environmental policy.
Training possibility:
CEDAR offers a variety of training possibilities incl. participation in on-going research projects, RTD thematic courses, seminars and workshops. For training activities, Centre offers two facilities: 3 seminar rooms (one air-conditioned) and a large conference room (300 seats) dividable into 3 separate halls for panel meetings. The facilities are equipped with audio-visual equipment.
Scientific co-operation:
Centre's researchers actively cooperate with RTD organizations in Poland and Europe as well as in the USA. CEDAR research activities are facilitated by scientific international co-operation under the following agreements:
Agreement for technical exchange between the Department of Energy of the USA and the IETU.
Agreement for research co-operation between the Florida State University, Tallahassee, USA and the IETU.
Agreement for research co-operation between Norwegian Institute for Air Research and the IETU.
Letter of Intent for research co-operation between the Institute of Mineralogy, Geochemistry and Crystal Chemistry of Rare Elements in Moscow, Russia and the IETU.
Letter of intent for research co-operation between the Institute of Soil Reclamation of the Russian Academy of Science in St. Petersburg, Russia and the IETU.
Centre's researchers participate in the works of the UN Economic Commission of Europe under the Convention on LRTAP.
The Centre actively co-operates with RTD units in NAS countries in the scope of brownfields revitalisation aimed at abatement of health hazards. The Centre is member of such European networks as: NICOLE, ANCORE, CABERNET.
Co-operation with industrial partners:
Co-operation among industrial partners and Centre provides a reliable feedback on the socio-economic needs to CEDAR to tailor the RTD work and address these needs in the most effective way. CEDAR researchers carried out goal oriented projects performed to solve specific industrial problems such as:
desulphurization of flue gases from several power plants in Poland,
environmental friendly industrial waste disposal,
cleanup of soils contaminated with petroleum compounds to remediate a sludge lagoon in one of oil refineries in Southern Poland,
development of phytoremediation technology applied to cleanup soils contaminated with lead, cadmium and mercury in site located in the Upper Silesia Region,
Environmental Impact Assessment for many branch of industry.
Other info:
The facilities of the Centre cover the total area of 5505m2, in that 3725m2 of useable area. Researchers visiting CEDAR are provided unlimited access to internet using one of 110 working stations installed, they may also become members of Centre's group-working by joining our local net. IETU Centre has always been an institution attractive to foreign researchers due to specific multidisciplinary scientific workshop, favourable atmosphere for joint research works and easy communication with IETU scientists (more than 70% of the staff speak English). Only in the span of last five years 160 scientists visited IETU. They represented such organisations as UNEP, WHO, UNDP, UNIDO, UN ECE, US EPA, Austrian EPA, German EPA, Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences in St. Petersburg, IIASA, Universities of Stuttgart, Nottingham, Goteborg, Wageningen, Budapest, Ostrava, Florida State University as well as research institutes: NILU, NIVA, TNO, RIVM and others.
