Territorial Governance and Social Participation for the Remediation of Contaminated Soils

Abstract

Territorial governance evaluates the management and government of public policies from a perspective of social participation for the dynamics of territorial cohesion of contaminated soils for their initiation, implementation, and evaluation, which is why, when applying governance, it monitors the impact of socio-environmental conflicts generated by soil contamination, since each area and region is different and, therefore, different management alternatives and guidelines must be applied for the remediation of areas affected by contaminants, such as oil spills, pesticides, and heavy metals. On the other hand, residents must be considered and involved in carrying out the biorecovery and stabilization of contaminated soils.

1. Introduction

Soil is an essential, nonrenewable resource, providing food and supporting aquatic systems, vegetation, and all biotic and nonabiotic components. The importance of soil is increasing because this natural resource is threatened by pollution, which has significantly reduced its quality [1, 2].

Soil contamination is sometimes due to natural processes (volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and tsunamis, to name a few) and due to anthropogenic activities, such as extraction of metals (trace and heavy metals), chemical products (pesticides, oil, polymers, plastics, and other waste), and radioactive waste (nuclear energy generation and byproducts from nuclear technology) [3].

These substances are carcinogenic, teratogenic, and mutagenic. When they have high concentrations for long periods of time, they become potentially toxic to socio-ecosystems because they accumulate and get biomagnified until they cause damage to nature and humans [4, 5]. In this sense, the effects of pollution on the environment and humans can be slow (chronic) or can act quickly (acute) and, therefore, multiple studies are required over time to know the effects and simultaneous adverse reactions on environmental and human health [6].

Likewise, the effects of pollution occur at all spatial scales, and it must be considered that the environment is continuous and does not obey political limits [6, 7, 8]. For many governments, implementing public environmental policies to remediate contaminated soils is becoming a priority because, within the framework of planetary limits [9], six of the nine limits are transgressed, suggesting that the planet Earth is no longer a safe operating space for humanity [10].

Given this concern, alternatives that are friendly to the natural environment are sought to achieve, in this case, the remediation of contaminated soils, for example, there are biotechnologies such as green and sustainable remediation where the processes are considered biological-ecological, social-anthropological, and economic-administrative for remediation and restoration projects in contaminated areas (Figure 1) [11, 12, 13, 14].

Figure 1.

Linking processes between social participation, the axes of sustainable remediation, and territorial governance.

Likewise, for remediation and restoration processes, people must be considered and involved to create scenarios where cooperation, communication, and trust between actors (society, business, government, academia, and civil associations) are visualized to create an ideal environment for solving problems, conflicts, and socio-environmental repercussions due to soil contamination and, thereby, reducing and solving the socio-environmental crisis of the territory [15, 16, 17].

Although there is technical and scientific evidence on soil contamination worldwide [18], it seems that this does not matter and that the real concern is to continue generating more viable economic development at the expense of nature, that is, underestimating the biocapacity and importance of recovering the affected soils [14, 19].

Preventing the environmental, social, and economic collapse of a territory due to soil contamination must be focused on the multiplicity of biotechnologies that can be implemented for the remediation of the affected areas, taking into account the different spatial, temporal, and social scales within of the complex framework of adaptive (sub)system and socio-ecological systems so that, with this, territorial governance can be managed [20, 21].

Territorial governance refers to the complex, multifaceted, and plural process between the different actors for decision-making, that is, it seeks adaptive efficiency and requires flexibility, experimentation, and learning with different interests and the common good within a given space [22, 23] in this case, areas impacted by pollution. Whereas the authorities seek to apply remediation strategies.

Now, territorial governance is required not only to consider political management, but the coordination of one or more modes of governance must be considered using different instruments, methods, and strategies under social participation to overcome governance failures and, at the same time, to achieve sustainable remediation of contaminated soils [24, 25, 26]. Therefore, the objective of this work is to analyze territorial governance as a strategy in the search for social participation in the remediation of contaminated soils.

2. Territorial governance, social participation, and contaminated soils

Governance seeks cooperation between governments, public and private administrations, nongovernmental actors, and civil society in the development of public policies for a common good [27]. Furthermore, by applying good governance, the management objectives will be effective and successful, considering international agreements, to use processes, techniques, and methods to provide a solution to a given problem [28].

In this sense, social participation supports decision-making and solutions at the local, regional, and even territorial level in a participatory manner, since the effective participation of society manages to contribute to legal instruments and territorial planning plans, that is, if citizens are considered, their contributions to caring for the environment and the economy of the territory would be favorable [29, 30].

Likewise, this social participation collaborates, empowers, and creates social management within public environmental policies on soil contamination issues, which generates debates around decision-making processes, especially those related to physical and chemical methods, biological and soil resource management, as well as the damage caused to the natural resources of the territory (Figure 2) [31, 32, 33, 34].

Figure 2.

Social participation of a community in Tabasco, Mexico, regarding its natural resources in the territory. Photographs: José G. Chan-Quijano.

When applying territorial governance, the participation of public administration, political science, and social participation is considered within the strategies to shape the behavior of the actors to generate strategies and rules for the application of biotechnologies in the remeasurement process of contaminated soils and the environmental regulation of companies is not compromised toward the sanitation of the affected socio-ecosystem [8, 25].

However, it must be considered that soil contamination may be different in the concentration levels of the contaminant, in its distribution over the territory and that the contaminant will be different, for example, heavy metals, metalloids, hydrocarbons, pesticides, plastics, and emerging contaminants, to name a few. Furthermore, the biogeochemical behavior of each pollutant in the system will cause damage at different scales to natural resources and humans [31, 34, 35, 36].

Therefore, territorial governance and social participation are two conceptual and practical methods that develop strategies within remediation biotechnologies to achieve effectiveness in the recovery of contaminated soils, that is, from a political and social sphere, they can generate methods for choosing, controlling, and replacing viable techniques for the recovery of the contaminated area [37, 38].

In this context, and at the same time, a capacity for monitoring and principles of public policy will be generated in the administration of resources and environmental policies (regulatory framework and government effectiveness toward the problem), and, above all, the consideration of citizens in the participation of the remeasurement of the contaminated environment in conjunction with territorial governance and emotions toward nature (Figure 3).

Figure 3.

Principles and interaction between territorial governance, social participation, and the remediation of contaminated soils within environmental policy. Source: own elaboration based on Refs. [23, 39, 40, 41, 42].

Therefore, considering the previous principles and following up on the problem, it is crucial to develop methods and techniques to evaluate the potential risks of human exposure to contaminants and decide the concentration thresholds in soils to protect the health of the socio-ecosystems [3, 43]. Because soil contamination continues to increase and remediation practices are few, social participation must be considered to achieve sustainable remediation in conjunction with territorial governance.

3. Humans and nature: the socio-environmental emergency of contaminated soils

The link between humans and nature supports knowing that epistemological and methodological forces for the metatheoretical formulation to seek the socio-environmental stability of the affected socio-ecosystems, in this case, soil contamination. Legally, this problem (company-society-government) is given attention, but with flaws in the environmental legal system since it seems that nature is absent due to monetary interest [44, 45].

When looking for alternatives for management, remediation, and restoration of contaminated soils, it is, without a doubt, taking society into account so that citizens can understand their concerns about the affected environment that surrounds them and, with this, achieve this change of thinking about its environmental rationality not only with the view that a payment will be received for compensation for the damage caused but also to achieve a democracy of the Earth, that is, that with the same social participation the socio-ecosystem affected by pollution [46, 47, 48].

According to the above, there are various biotechnologies, for example, bioremediation, phytoremediation, and electroremediation, to mention a few, but they are applied from an ecological-biological perspective for the remediation of contaminated soil. However, it is necessary to apply these techniques, but considering society and, at the same time, the territorial governance of the affected socio-ecosystem, that is, apply the ecological-biological, social-anthropological, and economic-administrative axes for sustainable remediation [11, 49, 50].

On the other hand, within territorial governance, green criminology can be brought closer to environmental policy through the studies of environmental crimes and crimes derived from soil contamination by various organic and inorganic pollutants, since these compounds are factors that threaten the natural components of the socio-ecosystems. Therefore, green criminology offers an epistemological, theoretical, and methodological framework to understand the legal framework that, in turn, will achieve successful and efficient remediation [51, 52, 53].

In this context, the environmental crisis is a civilizational crisis and human irresponsibility in the face of contamination of socio-ecological systems and is driven by a lack of being and a will to power in environmental politics, that is, there is a struggle for life [54]. Finally, we must rethink the current state of contaminated soils in the territory and, with this, achieve an alternative that goes beyond what is legal, that is, society itself is aware of the damage being caused to the ground which, many times, is irreparable.

4. Perspective of the state and social consciousness: case studies in the remediation of contaminated soils

At the international level, there are a few initiatives on the soil protection regime, including the issue of contamination and remediation measures, which could generate a serious risk to environmental and human health, as well as put at risk the long-term sustainable development of the land’s soils [55, 56, 57]. In this sense, a holistic perspective must be applied where the environmental, social, and economic benefits of remediation are maximized and, with this, territorial governance and socio-environmental management of contaminated sites must be put into practice [58].

Territorial governance and socio-environmental management propose that the remediation of contaminated soils within public environmental policy should be a priority for policymakers, professional organizations, and all parties interested in environmental protection; therefore, a multidisciplinary scenario must be applied where side effects are considered, as well as socioeconomic aspects [59]. Likewise, human environmental ethics must be part of the reciprocal relationships between nature and social conscience.

Within environmental awareness, emerging collaborative contributions must be applied where the capacity for self-design of contaminated soils is based on systemic approaches that help to remediate, restore, and conserve socio-ecosystems (Table 1) [60, 64]. Furthermore, in the social consciousness of the subjects what is sought is the redefinition of sustainability and new rationalities with an orientation toward governance and participation with other actors so that the State can develop more specific public policies for the recovery and remediation of the contaminated soils [50].

Emerging collaborative contribution	Characteristics	Link to remediation
Care of the place	It considers the relationship of the subjects with their natural environment, which they appropriate physically and spiritually (worldview) where they establish their home and, therefore, take care of natural resources.	Examines the perception and concern about the contamination of the area and seeks remediation and restoration of the affected socio-ecosystem, being careful not to look at the area as a monetary resource.
Care of power	Examines how the subjects of the affected areas participate in decision-making with aspects of environmental public policy and territorial governance.	Explores the need to apply socio-ecological justice under the study of green criminology and environmental ethics in social awareness toward conservation.
Care of the common good	It explores collective action and provides information on recovery practices for the common good, that is, it seeks new strategies and methodologies based on nature or people themselves.	It recognizes that contaminated soils are integrated with the social system, which is why it seeks to co-manage sustainable biotechnologies by incorporating environmental policies to solve common problems.

Table 1.

Collaborative contributions under social awareness for the self-design of strategies for the remediation of contaminated soils.

Source: Prepared based on Refs. [60, 61, 62, 63].

According to the collaborative contributions, the social awareness of the subjects and the State within their participation in territorial governance is that there are cases that have managed to apply some remediation method, for example, in Mexico, the national remediation program of contaminated sites with the objective of applying priority strategies and specific actions, as well as interinstitutional coordination tasks for the implementation or operation of the remediation of contaminated soils, taking into account participation and social well-being [65].

In Japan, they have the objective of applying technical development strategies to advance the application of viable technologies for final disposal areas of contaminated soils. Regarding regulatory aspects, managed recycling of removed soil and final disposal of removed soil will be applied. This soil will be converted to recycled material through quality adjustment and other processes to match the conditions of the materials to be used. In addition, they consider the social aspect of the care of human and environmental health and, with this, what they seek is trust and acceptability to increase social benefits and reduce the perception of risk [66, 67].

For its part, the United States is implementing best management practices where remediation technology can be used to reduce the environmental footprint and, in addition, focuses on using passive treatment systems and installing soil covers with an integration approach. Renewable energy is used on-site to recover natural resources through restoration and socio-environmental management plans [68].

Finally, and based on the examples, it is noted that there is international concern about contaminated soils, but there is still a lack of international regulation that supports the remediation and restoration of contaminated soils and, thereby, preserving the quality and functionality of the soil to ensure long-term environmental sustainability [19, 27, 48]. These synergistic actions, which consider both nature and society, provide a sustainable and efficient alternative for the State, together with territorial governance and social participation, to achieve green and sustainable remediation of contaminated soils.

5. Conclusions

Soil contamination is increasing, and remediation alternatives are not always viable due to the socio-environmental problems that are generated by society-business-government. Given this problem, the strategy of working with social participation is planned so that recovery strategies are generated from society itself, as well as the selection of the most viable remediation biotechnology for the affected area.

Social participation must be a priority in remediation projects for contaminated soils to generate strategies based on the same people to recover the affected socio-ecosystems. Likewise, working with territorial governance opens the opportunity to have principles and guidelines from environmental policy to remediate contaminated soils.

Sustainable remediation under its different axes can be an alternative for recovering the contaminated socio-ecosystem, but at the same time, it generates rationality and environmental awareness in society itself. Finally, at an international level, there is still a need to carry out remediation projects for contaminated soils where social participation is considered and, with this, a restoration of the recovered site is subsequently achieved.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Center for Global Change and Sustainability (Centro de Cambio Global y la Sustentabilidad) and the Autonomous University of Guadalajara (Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara) for their support for this research.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.