2005 IRISH SCIENTIST YEAR BOOK

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Institute of Technology,Tralee
Richard Hayden and Patrick Carney
Organic waste management system at IT Tralee

GPS soil sampling unit in operation

I.T. Tralee, with industrial partners Greenplan Limited of Mullingar, has developed an integrated land management solution for sewage sludge and other industrial organic wastes. The traceability of the system is of great interest to local authorities and any industry producing sludge. New European landfill directives prohibit the landfilling of certain sludge and the system developed makes their application to land a more controlled, traceable operation. The traceability aspect of the system uses Global Positioning Systems to collect all information with geo-references to the nearest metre squared. This is then stored and presented on a Geographical Information System which all local authorities have. This means that all works carried out have geo-references and can be audited as part of a quality assurance system. The following stages are involved in the implementation of this system.


Stage 1

Fields are mapped and scanned using a non invasive soil electrical conductivity unit. This provides a colour coded map of soil's physical properties and management zones. Features such as houses, wells, streams and drains are geo-referenced. Such features may not be easily established on old ordnance survey maps.


Stage 2

A groundwater vulnerability assessment is then carried out on the Geographical Information System where layers of topographic, Karst features and soil hydraulic properties can be overlaid. This results in a directed soil drilling programme where in high groundwater vulnerability areas test holes are drilled to 2 metres using a specially deigned mobile drill on the quad. These test holes are also geo-referenced and soil type and texture are noted.


Stage 3

A nutrient management plan is then used to balance nutrients in the soil and nutrients to be added taking into account climate, soil type, crop needs and concentration levels in the organic material to be added. Detailed heavy metal limit additions are calculated using a specially designed computer programme which ensures compliance to limit additions set out in the European Directive SI 148.


Stage 4

The spreading details are sent via wireless technology to the spreading equipment where the spreaders adjust rates up and down to site specific maps. This stage is currently being implemented on a between field basis rather than a within field basis


Stage 5

All information and records are archived and made available though a web enabled database. This means that this extensive information is made more accessible to the various users, ensures compliance and ensures that expensive scientific information can be used to make informed decisions.

Contact: Richard Hayden or Dr Patrick Carney
School of Science, Institute of Technology, Tralee;
Tel: 066 7145600; Fax: 066 7145651;
E-mail: [email protected]