Photovoltaics is one of the front-running renewable energy technologies, greatly contributing to reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. With aim for carbon neutrality ever larger photovoltaics plants are being built worldwide alongside an increasing number small-scale Agri-Voltaics (APV) systems. Despite this trend, impact such systems on environment remains scarcely studied. By means lysimeter...

A lysimeter station has been set up by AMRA for the study of the reactive transport of contaminants in soil at the field-scale. It consists of eight lysimeters that can operate individually and simultaneously. Each lysimeter is a steel cylinder (diameter 1.14m, height 2m) filled with an undisturbed soil monolith, whose upper surface is directly exposed to the external environmental agents. A se...

Investigations are currently being conducted at Imperial College into the upward migration of radionuclides from a contaminated water table and their subsequent uptake by plant root systems. This programme includes both experimental studies and related mathematical modelling. Previous work has been primarily with lysimeters. However, these experiments are expensive and somewhat lengthy and the ...

The Commission of the European Communities (CEC) is just working out a new directive in order to regulate the agricultural reuse of sewage sludge. This new regulation will also effect a “special case” – sludge usage in a mountainous environment – which will be discussed in this paper. Three reuse sites at small wastewater treatment plants of mountain refuges at altitudes more than 2,000 m a.s.l...

Water use by willow (Salix viminalis L.) was studied in lysimeters containing clay landfill cap and sandy loam soils under different watering and amendment regimes. With plentiful water and amendments, seasonal ET increased annually and was highest in the sandy loam, increasing from 360 l plant(-1) in the establishment year to almost 1200 l plant(-1) in the third year. Seasonal ET was highly co...

A simple method for the installation of groundwater lysimeters in peat soils was developed which reduces both time and financial effort significantly. The method was applied on several sites in the Rhinluch, a fen peat land 60 km northwest of Berlin, Germany. Over a two-year period, upward capillary flow and evapotranspiration rates under grassland with different groundwater levels were measure...