Chapter 1 – Soil and Pollution: An Introduction to the Main Issues

Soil pollution has increased over the last decades and may pose a risk for human and ecological health. The main causes of soil pollution are associated with human activities, resulting in the accumulation of contaminants in soils that may reach levels of concern. Soil pollutants include a wide variety of contaminants (organic and inorganic chemicals), which can be derived from anthropogenic related activities, or naturally occurring in soil. Soil quality monitoring may be a hard task due to the lack of well-stated monitoring variables and indicators. On the other hand, the pressure on soil quality and the need for sustainability of soil fertility is ever increasing due to the issues related to the world’s population increase. Therefore, due to the combination of all the above-mentioned issues, the soil pollution becomes a hot topic. This chapter overviews the main aspects of soil contamination and demonstrates the main causes and types of soil pollution such as waste disposal, mining, agrochemicals, industry, and atmospheric deposition.