Research and development

Establishment of a research and development team at IRGO Consulting to develop a methodology for the characterisation of degraded areas

Project description

At the end of February 2015, we completed the Development of methodologies for the characterisation of degraded areas, which was carried out within the framework of the Strengthening Development Departments in Research Organisations project. The operation is partly co-financed by the European Social Fund under the Operational Programme for Human Resources Development 2007-2013, Development Priority 4: "Equality of Opportunities and Promotion of Social Inclusion" and Priority 4.3: "Raising the employability of vulnerable social groups in the field of culture and support for their social inclusion." The research group includes 6 members covering the following areas:

• civil engineering (geotechnics),

• geology (natural resources and environmental geology),

• mechanics (numerical modelling),

• mining and geotechnology (geotechnology).

• The operation analysed the approaches and guidelines of environmental agencies in Slovenia and abroad for the characterisation of degraded areas, as well as the current practices of revitalisation of these areas.

• Based on the analysis of the state of the art of field and laboratory measurements, we have approached the development of measurement methods that can be used to identify the specific properties and concentrations of the substances that we are dealing with in degraded areas.

• We have developed software in Visual Basic and Visual Basic for Applications for the processing of the field measurements carried out, namely for the analysis of slug tests.

• In Visual Basic for Applications, we have developed a program to solve some specific analytical equations for groundwater flow and contaminant transport in the saturated zone of an aquifer.

• Through numerical modelling, we have established the construction of contaminant transport models in the complex unsaturated zone and in the saturated zone.

• We have developed methodologies for investigation and monitoring of degraded areas and produced guidelines for more effective characterisation of degraded areas for land managers, surveyors and planners.