Impacts of Soil Pollution and Their Assessment

Impact assessment of pollution is important step towards initiating appropriate remedial measures. However impact of soil pollution may not necessarily be uniform across the agro-ecological regions due to complex relationship among soil types, climate, crop types, nature and level of contamination as well as soil and crop management methodologies adopted. Moreover land resources are habitat of numerous organisms having varying degree of sensitivity towards contaminants. Hence, choosing right approach for assessing impact of pollution becomes important for satisfying various stakeholders affected by soil pollution. This chapter covers different types of impact of pollution on soil quality, economic yield of crop, food quality, biodiversity, fertilizer nutrient use efficiency, economy of the country etc. Pollution has already made adverse impacts on environment including soil in different countries. Widely cited instances of different types of pollution across the world and their impacts on soil and crop has also been discussed in this chapter.