Next to contributing primarily to the improvement in soil health, smart soil management has several co-benefits. It contributes to greater biodiversity, specifically to species increase and pollinator increase, and in increase in ecological connectivity. Conservation agriculture practices can help to reduce GHG emissions and improve air quality. Lastly, revegatation attempts in urban brownfield land enhances the attractiveness of the cities. 

Climate and geography:

This solution is overall use in small green parts in urban areas where due to the high concentrations of pollution is needed to absorb stabilize or exhaust them. This is possible thanks to the use of certain plants that use in their metabolism the components that we want to reduce, so it is necessary to take into account the climate and geography in order to use the right plants, which can withstand the climate for the necessary time, and which do not become invasive.

Policy and regulatory/legal framework:

Long-term policies which benefit the use for smart-soils and phytoremediation over less sustainable and toxic use of soils

Economic:

Financial support to cover the financial loss as a consequence of choosing a sustainable but time-intensive solution over a harmful but quick solution. For instance, a financial incentives program for soil regeneration practices (including in extreme cases phytoremediation).

Economic and Social context:

Reduction of pollutants due to smart-soils and phytoremediation reduce also it in water flow cleaning the rain water and reducing the contamination in undergrow water, water reaching rivers and urban wastewater treatment plants.

Insufficient incentives:

Since these cleaning processes can take up to a couple of years, land developers often choose to use another method of cleaning since they want to use their land as soon as possible. Choosing for this option will mean losing out on potential profit without having any economic incentives to taking the time to regenerate the land first.

Economic:

lack of funding/investor interest and economic incentives for phytoremediation-based businesses

Technical:

Lack of understanding of the phytoremediation method among professionals. There is a general lack of knowledge of what types of plants align with what type of compounds and type of soils as well as it requires soil analysis and expertise in multiple domains e.g. agronomist, toxicology.

Legal:

Regulations inhibiting the development of genetically engineered plants that are specifically efficient at extracting toxins from the soil, lengthy environmental impact assessments that make it difficult to get modified plants to the market

Duration:

A serious limitation of phytoremediation is the long time required for the clean-up of a site, which will take several growing seasons. In some cases, 18-60 months may be needed for site closure (source).

Economic viability:

Due to the long duration of cleaning the soils there is no real business model in using smart soils and/or phytoremediation. It is simply cheaper (as it is faster) to dig up the polluted soil (and replace it with clean soil).

• Phytoremediation - FoodE / De Ceuvel

(Increased) Soil health:

Cleaning up soil using phytoremediation increases the nutrients in the soil whilst it also can help soil erosion.

Longevity: 

A clean soil with more nutrients can be used longer and in a more sustainable way for agricultural purposes.

• Training
• Incentives
• Voluntary measures with stakeholders
• Green Public Procurement
• Engagement, co-creation and co-design of NBS and Green Infrastructure plans and interventions: https://netzerocities.app/resource-1608
• Integrated land use and urban planning with energy and climate: https://netzerocities.app/resource-1678
• NBS and Green Infrastructure regulation and ordinances: https://netzerocities.app/resource-1813

• Spring Valley Arsenic Phytoremediation, Washington DC (US)

Smart soil technologies:

For the majority of human history, food production has been solely driven by farmers. With exponential population growth, nature has been depleted of vital resources and polluted with toxic materials. By creating smart agricultural technologies that prevents and reverses these negative impacts, we can bring nature back to life to feed the world while caring for the environment.

Ecolotree:

Ecolotree is an Iowa-based engineering company that designs, installs, and maintains engineered forests at regulatory-permitted sites. It uses phytoremediation to remove pollutants from the soil.

De Ceuvel:

The soil between our boats is cultivated and maintained as a Zuiverend Park (Purifying Park): a green environment that grows specific sets of plants, which absorb, stabilize or exhaust high concentrations of pollution.