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Pollution, Land

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-32001-4_168-1

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P
Pollution, Land
Zerrin Savaşan
Department of International Relations, Sub-
Department of International Law, Faculty of
Economics and Administrative Sciences, Selçuk
University, Konya, Turkey
Pollution, in its all types (air, water, land), means
the entrance of some substances beyond the
threshold concentration level into the natural envi-
ronment which do not naturally belong there and
not present there, resulting in its destruction and
causing harmful effects on both humans/all living
organisms and the environment. So, in land pol-
lution as well, solid or liquid waste materials get
deposited on land and further degrade and deteri-
orate the quality and the productive capacity of
land surface. It is sometimes used as a substitute
of/or together with soil pollution where the upper
layer of the soil is destroyed. However, in fact, soil
pollution is just one of the causes of the land
pollution.
Like the other types, land pollution also arises
as a global environmental problem, specifically
associated with urbanization and industrialization,
that should be dealt with globally concerted envi-
ronmental policies. However, as a first and fore-
most step, it requires to be understood very well
with its all dimensions by all humankind, but
particularly the researchers studying on it.
# Springer International Publishing AG 2017
L.A. Schintler, C.L. McNeely (eds.), Encyclopedia of Big Data,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-32001-4_168-1
What Causes Land Pollution?
The degradation of land surfaces are caused
directly or indirectly by human (anthropogenic)
activities. It is possible to mention several reasons
temporally or permanently changing the land
structure and so causing land pollution. However,
three main reasons are generally identified as
industrialization, overpopulation, and urbaniza-
tion, and the others are counted as the reasons
stemming from these main reasons. Some of
them are as follows: improper waste disposal
(agricultural/domestic/industrial/solid/radioactive
waste) littering; mining polluting the land through
removing the topsoil which forms the fertile layer
of soil, or leaving behind waste products and the
chemicals used for the process; misuse of land
(deforestation, land conversion, desertification);
soil pollution (pollution on the topmost layer of
the land); soil erosion (loss of the upper (the most
fertile) layer of the soil); and the chemicals
(pesticides, insecticides, and fertilizers) applied
for crop enhancement on the lands.
Regarding these chemicals used for crop
enhancement, it should be underlined that, while
they are enhancing the crop yield, they can also
kill the insects, mosquitoes, and some other small
animals. So, they can harm the bigger animals that
feed on these tiny animals. In addition, most of
these chemicals can remain in the soil or accumu-
late there for many years. To illustrate, DDT
(dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) is one of these
pesticides. It is now widely banned with the great
2 Pollution, Land

effect of Rachel Carson’s very famous book,
Silent Spring (1962), which documents detrimen-
tal effects of pesticides on the environment, par-
ticularly on birds. Nonetheless, as it is not
ordinarily biodegradable, so known as persistent
organic pollutant, it has remained in the environ-
ment ever since it was first used.
This process threatens both these particular spe-
cies and also all the other species above and below
in the food chain. All these combining with the
massive extinctions of certain species – primarily
because of the disturbance of their habitat –
induce also massive reductions in biodiversity.

Control Measures for Land Pollution

Consequences of Land Pollution
Land pollution, along with other types of pollu-
All types of pollution are interrelated and their
tion, poses a threat to the sustainability of world
consequences cannot be restricted to the place
resources. However, while others can have self-
where the pollution is first discharged. This is
purification opportunities through the help of nat-
particularly because of the atmospheric deposition
ural events, it can stay as polluted till to be cleaned
in which existing pollution in the air (atmosphere)
up. Given the time necessary to pass for the dis-
creating pollution in water or land as well.
appearance of plastics in nature (hundreds of
Since they are interrelated to each other, their
years) and the radioactive waste (almost forever),
impacts are similar to each other as well. Like the
this fact can be understood better. So then land
others, land pollution has also serious conse-
pollution becomes one of the serious concerns of
quences on both humans, animals and other living
the humankind.
organisms, and environment. First of all, all living
When the question is asked what should be
things depend on the resources of the earth to
done to deal with it, first of all, it is essential to
survive and on the plants growing from the land,
remind that it is a global problem having no
so anything that damages or destroys the land
boundaries, so requires to be handled with collec-
ultimately has an impact on the survival of
tively. While working collectively, it is first of all
humankind itself and all other living things on
necessary to set serious environmental objectives
the earth. Damages on the land also lead to some
and best-practice measures. A wide range of
problems in relation to health like respiratory
measures – changing according to the cause of
problems, skin problems, and various kinds of
the pollution – can be thought to prevent, reduce,
cancers.
or stop land pollution, such as adopting and
Its effects on environment also require to take
encouraging organic farming instead of using
attention as it forms one of the most important
chemicals herbicides, and pesticides, restricting
reasons of the global warming which has started to
or forbidding their usage, developing the effective
be a very popular but still not adequately under-
methods of recycling and reusing of waste mate-
stood phenomena. This emerges from a natural
rials, constructing proper disposal of all wastes
circulation, in turn, land pollution leads to the
(domestic, industrials, etc.) into secured landfill
deforestation, it leads to less rain, eventually to
sites, and creating public awareness and support
problems such as the greenhouse effect and global
towards all environmental issues.
warming/climate change. Biomagnification is the
Apart from all those measures, the use of Big
other major concern stemming from land pollu-
Data technologies can also be thought as a way of
tion. It occurs when certain substances, such as
addressing rapidly increasing and wide-ranging
pesticides or heavy metals, gained through eating
consequences of land pollution.
by aquatic organisms such as fish, which in turn
Some of the cases in which Big Data technol-
are eaten by large birds, animals, or humans. They
ogies are used in relation to one or more aspects of
become concentrated in internal organs as they
land pollution can be illustrated as follows (ELI
move up the food chain, and then the concentra-
2014):
tion of these toxic compounds tends to increase.
Pollution, Land
• Located under US Department of the Interior
(DOI), the National Integrated Land System
(NILS) aims to provide the principal data
source for land surveys and status by combin-
ing Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and
Forest Service data into a joint system.
• New York City Open Accessible Space Infor-
mation System (OASIS) is another sample
case; as being an online open space mapping
tool, it involves a huge amount of data
concerning public lands, parks, community
gardens, coastal storm impact areas, and zon-
ing and land use patterns.
• Providing online accession of the state Depart-
ments of Natural Resources (DNRs) and other
agencies to the data of Geographic Information
Systems (GIS) on environmental concerns,
while contributing to the effective manage-
ment of land, water, forest, and wildlife, it
essentially requires the use of Big Data to
make this contribution.
• Alabama’s State Water Program is another
example ensuring geospatial data related to
hydrologic, soil, geological, land use, and
land cover issues.
• The National Ecological Observatory Network
(NEON) is an environmental organization pro-
viding the collection of the site-based data
related to the effects of climate change, inva-
sive species from 160 sites and also land use
throughout the USA.
• The Tropical Ecology Assessment and Moni-
toring Network (TEAM) is also a global net-
work facilitating the collection and integration
of publicly shared data related to patterns of
biodiversity, climate, ecosystems, and also
land use.
• The Danger Maps is another sample case for
the use of Big Data, as it also provides the
mapping of government-collected data on
over 13,000 polluting facilities in China to
allow users to search by area or type of pollu-
tion (water, air, radiation, soil).
The US Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) and the Environmental Performance Index
(EPI) are also other platforms using Big Data
3
compiled from a great number of sensors regard-
ing environmental issues, on land pollution and on
other types of pollution. That is, Big Data tech-
nologies can be thought as a way of addressing
consequences of all types of pollution, not just of
land pollution. This is particularly because, all
types of pollution are deeply interconnected with
another type, so their consequences cannot be
restricted to the place where the pollution is first
discharged as mentioned above. Therefore, actu-
ally, for all types of pollution, relying on satellite
technology and data and data visualization is
essentially required to monitor them regularly, to
forecast and reduce their possible impacts, and to
mitigate the pollution itself. Nonetheless, there are
serious concerns raised about different aspects of
the use of Big Data in general (boyd 2010; boyd
and Crawford 2012; De Mauro et al. 2016; Forte
Wares; Keeso 2014; Mayer-Schönberger and
Cukier 2013; Simon 2013; Sowe and Zettsu
2014). So, further investigation and analysis are
needed to clarify the relevant gaps and challenges
regarding the use of Big Data for specifically land
pollution.
Cross-References
▶ Climate Change
▶ Earth Sciences
▶ Environment
▶ Natural Sciences
▶ Pollution, Air
▶ Pollution, Water
Further Readings
Alloway, B. J. (2001). Soil pollution and land contamina-
tion. In R. M. Harrison (Ed.), Pollution: Causes, effects
and control (pp. 352–377). Cambridge: The Royal
Society of Chemistry.
Boyd, D. (2010). Privacy and publicity in the context of big
data. WWW Conference, Raleigh, 29 Apr 2010.
Retrieved from http://www.danah.org/papers/talks/
2010/WWW2010.html. Accessed 3 Feb 2017.
Boyd, D., & Crawford, K. (2012). Critical questions for big
data, information, communication & society. 15(5),
662–679. Retrieved from http://www.tandfonline.com/
4 Pollution, Land
doi/abs/10.1080/1369118X.2012.678878. Accessed 3 Feb
2017.
De Mauro, A., Greco, M., & Grimaldi, M. (2016). A formal
definition of big data based on its essential features.
Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publica
tion/299379163_A_formal_definition_of_Big_Data_
based_on_its_essential_features. Accessed 3 Feb 2017.
Environmental Law Institute (ELI). (2014). Big data and
environmental protection: An initial survey of public
and private initiatives. Washington, DC: Environmen-
tal Law Institute. Retrieved from https://www.eli.org/
sites/default/files/eli-pubs/big-data-and-environmental-prot
ection.pdf. Accessed 3 Feb 2017.
Environmental Performance Index (EPI). Available at:
http://epi.yale.edu/. Accessed 3 Feb 2017.
Forte Wares. Failure to launch: From big data to big deci-
sions why velocity, variety and volume is not improv-
ing decision making and how to fix it. White Paper.
A Forte Consultancy Group Company. Retrieved from
http://www.fortewares.com/Administrator/userfiles/Ban
ner/forte-wares–pro-active-reporting_EN.pdf. Accessed
3 Feb 2017.
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Hill, M. K. (2004). Understanding environmental pollu-
tion. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Keeso, A. (2014). Big data and environmental sustainabil-
ity: A conversation starter. Smith School Working Paper
Series, Dec 2014, Working paper 14-04. Retrieved from
http://www.smithschool.ox.ac.uk/library/working-paper
s/workingpaper%2014-04.pdf. Accessed 3 Feb 2017.
Mayer-Schönberger, V., & Cukier, K. (2013). Big data:
A revolution that will transform how we live, work and
think. London: John Murray.
Mirsal, I. A. (2008). Soil pollution, origin, monitoring &
remediation. Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer.
Raven, P. H., & Berg, L. R. (2006). Environment. Danvers:
Wiley.
Simon, P. (2013). Too big to ignore: The business case for
big data. Hoboken: Wiley.
Sowe, S. K., & Zettsu, K. (2014). Curating big data made
simple: Perspectives from scientific communities. Big
Data, 2(1), 23–33. Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.
Withgott, J., & Brennan, S. (2011). Environment. Cornell
University: Pearson.