I caratteri del suolo di un'area degradata: parametri chimici e indicatori ecologici a confronto

[Autom. eng. transl.] The present work is an integral part of a project co-financed by the European Union "Environmental recovery of a degraded and desertified soil through a new technology of soil reconstitution treatment" (Life 10 ENV IT 400 "New Life") which consists of testing of an innovative technology for restoring degraded and desertified soils. The area of intervention (with an extension of about 20 ha) is located in the municipal area of Piacenza where in the period between the 70s and 80s a landfill was created for MSW and a subsequent restoration work with a layer of soil of coverage. This experimentation envisaged, in its initial phase, a land cover characterization of the landfill and a study on the symptoms and phenomena of soil degradation on which the technology will be applied. In this first phase 52 soil samplings were operated so as to cover the entire surface of the site. Around each sampling point phytosociological surveys of the vegetation were carried out, involving for each a surface of 16 m2 (4x4 m). Various parameters have been determined for the soil (according to the official methods of chemical soil analysis) including: pH, total nitrogen, organic carbon. For vegetation, the ecological indices of Pignatti (2005) and Landolt et al. (2010), specifically: R (substrate reaction value), N (soil nutrient value) and H (soil humus value). The values returned by the ecological indices were compared with the relative chemical parameters to evaluate the response in describing the soil characteristics.