On April 20th and 21st Tauw and Witteveen+Bos organized a conference at the Volgermeerpolder site. In addition to several lectures, all sorts of activities took place.
The purpose of the ‘natural cap conference’ was to bring together experts and those interested in sustainable sanitation. In this way it could be visualized what has been achieved at Volgermeer. Paul Stook, project manager for Tauw: ‘It does not occur too often that a former chemical dumpsite is turned into a beautiful and freely accessible area. The increase in value of the surrounding area alone should already make it very interesting for landfill managers, real estate agents, land developers, municipalities and district water boards.’
The conference started with a review of the Volgermeer project and the ensuing spin-off in the field of soil, landfills and peat studies. The fact is that at Volgermeer the most extensive peat research in the world was initiated. Universities involved gave a presentation about this study and there was opportunity for a site visit.
Other activities on the programme included: demo flights by Gyrocopter, building and demonstrating a peat roof, and exploring the area on foot, by golf cart or landrover. In addition, there were stands for companies who demonstrated their technological developments.
Downloads
De presentaties die gegeven zijn tijdens het congres en een samenvatting van de resultaten zijn hier te downloaden.
Downloads:
The presentations given during the conference and a summary of the results are downloadable here.
Session 1 (Wednesday 20 April): Sustainable waste management at the Volgermeerpolder site – chair: Ruud Cino, Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment
- Remediation of the Volgermeer: history, facts and figures
- Application of the Volgermeer experience
- Towards sustainable solutions for mine waste
- Amsterdam Policy for large scale remediation sites
- Landscaping of Volgermeerpolder landfill site
Session 2 (Wednesday 20 April): Green rehabilition – chair: Willem Hendriks, Witteveen+Bos
- Peat and landfills; Unravelling the mysterious world of peat and contaminants
- Lifting up lowlands Upgrading natural materials and methods for sustainable elevation of low lying polder areas
- The Volgermeerpolder site - From waste dump to research area for peat development
- Ecology of the ‘natural cap’ and its use for fen restoration
Session 3 (Thursday 21 April): Landfill management and POPs - chair: Bram de Borst, CEO Tauw Group
- Strategic approaches to contaminated land reclamation in Poland
- The Stockholm convention and international obsolete pesticides in African stockpile programme
- Pragmatic approaches to tackling the problems of obsolete pesticides in the context of the African stockpile programme
- Policy developments necessary for sustainable landfill management
Session 4 (Thursday 21 April): Case studies – chair: Dietmar Müller, Austrian Environment Agency
- Implementing sustainable aftercare in the former landfill Ilperveld,
Landsmeer, The Netherlands - Natural catch - Green rehabilitation of the Rhoonse Grienden and Philippine landfill sites
- Management of the Georgswerder landfill Hamburg
- Polder in polder
- Poster Natural Cap Conference