Improvement of Saemangeum Dredged Soils Using Coffee Sludge for Vegetation Soil

Abstract

In Korea, a large scale national project (Saemangeum Project) has been underway that requires a huge amount of dredged soils and their reclamation. Although a lot of dredged soil is needed for reclamation, only about 10% of the dredged soil is used. For this reason, much effort should be made to extensively use the dredged soil. The objective of the study is to find reasonable ways of improving the dredged soils in the Saemangeum area so that they can be used for vegetation of land plants. In order to develop ameliorating methods, we treated silty sand samples, the representative dredged soil of Saemangeum, with mountain soil (0% and 30%), sawdust fertilizer (0% and 6%), bioameliorant (0% and 6%), and coffee sludge (3%, 6%, and 9%), measured the germination rate of bent grass, and applied the lab experiment results to the field for validation. As a result, it was verified that when a mixture of coffee sludge and sawdust fertilizer was used, the chemical and physical properties of dredged soil were significantly improved. This implies that the beneficial use of the dredged soil can be facilitated.