Contaminated sites have been recognized as posing serious comprehensive social and environmental issues and have earned worldwide attention. As contaminated sites around farmland in China have seriously threatened soil quality and food security, China is becoming one of the largest contaminated site remediation markets in the world. However, remediation planning is often hindered by high financial costs resulting from incomplete assessments of pollution and inappropriate remediation plans.

Zhang Qianru's research team from the Innovation Team of Soil-Plant Interactions of the Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning (IARRP), Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), systematically studied the current remediation status of contaminated sites around farmland in China and initiated screening of remediation alternatives.

Based on the in-depth contaminated site assessments in Northeast China this study provides the necessary baseline data for screening of remediation alternatives. Thus, a novel method for health risk assessment (HRA) and a multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) based on this method was presented to select the most suitable remediation alternatives. Four remediation alternatives were proposed on the basis of the HRA and MCDA processes. The MCDA results showed that PRB was the most suitable technology for integrating the relevant environmental, social, economic, and technical aspects required for remediation. This study will help agencies in charge of rehabilitation and reconstruction of contaminated sites, and provide theoretical and methodological guidance for effective implementation based on a big data management model.

The research results were published in Journal of Hazardous Materials (IF=9.038), in an article entitled “A coupled optimization of groundwater remediation alternatives screening under health risk assessment: An application to a petroleum-contaminated site in a typical cold industrial region in Northeastern China”. Chen Ruihui, a postdoctoral fellow at the IARRP, CAAS is the first author. Research fellow Zhang Qianru at the IARRP, CAAS and Professor Teng Yanguo at Beijing Normal University are the co-corresponding authors. This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the National Key Research and Development Program of China, the Innovation Project of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and the National Postdoctoral Program for Innovative Talent.

Chen RH, Teng YG*, Chen HY, Yue WF, Su XS, Liu YN, Zhang QR*. A coupled optimization of groundwater remediation alternatives screening under health risk assessment: An application to a petroleum-contaminated site in a typical cold industrial region in Northeastern China. Journal of Hazardous Materials. 2021. 407: 124796.

 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.124796