It is estimated that soil pollution generates an annual cost of 6 billion euros. Therefore, a large number of large areas remain untreated. PHYTOSUDOE proposes an economically and technically more advantageous solution to deal with decontamination: phyto-management. The latter, despite its great advantages, remains poorly used due to lack of knowledge about the latter. Thus, PHYTOSUDOE starts from the stabilization of contaminants of affected soils and their restoration using plants in non-food crops to recover the spaces.
For this, PHYTOSUDOE has created a network of 8 sites with contaminated soils to study the use of certain plants in decontamination. Each of these areas, with different characteristics but responding to an oceanic climate, have undergone the procedure. All this has made it possible to carry out comparisons and establish potential scenarios taking into account variable factors such as soil types, types of pollutants or climatic circumstances.
Following these studies, methodologies have been developed with specific recommendations to use phyto-management. In addition, a European network of phyto-management experts for degraded or contaminated soils, the GreenReMed network, has been created. The PHYTOSUDOE project has managed to involve all the key actors in decontamination, including soil managers, administrations and education systems. On the other hand, it has placed special emphasis on training in the field by organizing special masters and summer courses. One of the greatest successes of the project has been the use of phyto-management in the so-called green ring of Vitoria-Gasteiz: the peripheral industrial zone of the city with a great deterioration of its soils. This practice is going to be institutionalized in other municipalities.
