Jose Matias Peñas Castejon

University of Limoges | UNILIM · Groupement de Recherche Eau Sol Environnement (GRESE)

In city agglomerations significant pollution results from fossil fuel combustion from heat and power plants, transportation, and boilers in households. In this context, pollution from recalcitrant, environmentally accumulative metal(loid)s can be a critical human health risk. In day-care centers, playgrounds, kindergartens, schools, and sport facil...

Soils and mining wastes from the Mediterranean mining area placed in the Sierra Minera of Cartagena La Union are highly enriched in heavy metals such as lead and zinc, but also other metals such as cadmium and arsenic. Wind erosion processes in this area is considered extremely high and hazards associated to this eroded sediments seems to be high b...

Among the threats to air, soil, and water posed by urbanization, heavy metals appear particularly hazardous. Playgrounds and sport facilities are unique urban places, widely used by children and youth. The aim of this research was to evaluate heavy metal pollution in urban soils, identify relationships among topsoil metal distributions, and assess...

Purpose The paper describes rhizospheric (Rs) and non-rhizospheric (nRs) soil to demonstrate the zone of the plant root impact on physical and chemical properties of the soil. The effects of the process accompanying the transformations of organic matter into humic substances in the rhizosphere of “common dandelion” Taraxacum officinale have been de...

The bioaccessibility and human health risks of trace elements (TE) Pb, Zn, As and Cd in settled dust samples collected from seven towns located in the mining district of Cartagena-La Unión (SE Spain), including educational areas (EA), residential areas (RA), recreational areas (REA) and industrial and mining areas (IMA), were investigated in order...

It is understood that particulate matter in the atmosphere from metallic mining waste has adverse health effects on populations living nearby. Atmospheric deposition is a process connecting the mining wastes with nearby ecosystems. Unfortunately, very limited information is available about atmospheric deposition surrounding rural metallic mining ar...

The research concerns the total content, mobility, and availability of selected heavy metals in soils of playgrounds and sport facility areas of two Polish cities. These places are open city areas and are used by a great number of children, youth and adults. The study was conducted to investigate selected heavy metals contamination in soils, and to...

To understand the behaviour of mercury in soils and assess the risk of its toxicity, the forms in which the element is found in the environment must be detected. In the occurrence of favourable alkylation conditions (for example in floodplain soils), the content of methyl and ethyl mercury is higher. These Hg forms in comparison with mineral compou...

The effects of an abandoned mining area, exploited for centuries in the mining district of Cartagena-La Union, result in a continuous supply of heavy metals into the Mar Menor coastal lagoon after rain episodes. As a consequence, concentration of trace elements in water column and sediments of this ecosystem is usually higher than in other areas. F...

La degradación generada en los suelos y residuos mineros produce una gran dispersión de los contaminantes metálicos por todo su entorno, llegando a afectar a todo tipo de organismos. Los metales pesados, ya sean esenciales o no, pueden llegar a ser tóxicos cuando su aporte es excesivo y afectar negativamente al crecimiento y reproducción de los org...

El turismo se ha convertido en un sector económico estratégico para la generación de riqueza en todo el arco mediterráneo español. Este desarrollo turístico ha supuesto un significativo incremento del suelo residencial producido exclusivamente bajo criterios que responden a pautas definidas por los mercados inmobiliarios. Una mala praxis en materia...

Enhancing the value of an underground mine environment for tourist exploitation involves altering the physico-chemical balance of stone materials whose original mechanical properties guaranteed the structural stability of the site's galleries and chambers. Humidity and temperature changes caused by the public exhibition of this kind of assets are t...

El turismo se ha convertido en un sector económico estratégico para la generación de riqueza en todo el arco mediterráneo español. Este desarrollo turístico ha supuesto un significativo incremento del suelo residencial producido exclusivamente bajo criterios que responden a pautas definidas por los mercados inmobiliarios. Una mala praxis en materia...

A bad practice concerning land planning, in combination with a model of unsustainable tourism development and disrespectful to the environment, has triggered severe –sometimes irreversible- environmental impacts on the natural and sociocultural environment. Among the impacts mentioned above, it is worth noting those derived from changes in traditio...

The urban soils degradation by exposure to heavy metals that come from mining and industrial areas, as consequence of wind and water erosion processes, is a common problem in the European countries located in the Mediterranean basin. Due to high concentration of heavy and transition metals that are contained in these soils, it can be classified acc...

The first ecological restoration of mining tailing were carried out in the Mining District of Cartagena-La Unión in 1982, by means of the sealing of the mining wastes with a layer of 0.5 m of soil, to allow the colonization by the vegetation. This study provides an evaluation of the metal mobilization on those mining ponds restored 30 years ago und...

The first ecological restoration of mining tailing were carried out in the Mining District of Cartagena-La Unión in 1982, by means of the sealing of the mining wastes with a layer of 0.5 m of soil, to allow the colonization by the vegetation. This study provides an evaluation of the metal mobilization on those mining ponds restored 30 years ago und...

La degradación generada en los suelos y residuos mineros de áreas de minería metálica, hacen que se produzca una elevadísima dispersión de los contaminantes metálicos por todo su entorno. Esto supone la afección, en gran medida, de la vegetación natural instalada en estas zonas. En este sentido, se investigó la distribución de elementos traza en lo...

La movilidad de los metales dentro de las zonas de minería de sulfuros metálicos está actuando como el factor principal en relación a la peligrosidad asociada a estas áreas. Con el fin de disminuir esta movilidad, estos suelos y residuos mineros deben ser restaurados con técnicas específicas que sean capaces de reducir los flujos metálicos a través...

The extraction of metallic minerals and the mineral dressing operations in concentrators produced a high impact in soils and sediments. Heavy metals in soils constitute a high risk of pollution, not only for mining areas, but also for agriculture and villages placed in subsidiary areas. This research has been focused on the assessment of the real e...

Metal pollution can have adverse effects on human health but also on environment. Usually, risk is assessed on the basis of the total concentration of a trace metal in soils and sediments. Nevertheless, for checking the short and long-term true environmental impact of a trace element, one of the most crucial factors to consider is its mobility. Lea...

This work shows an environmental risk analysis of the mining-metallurgical waste of the Sierra Minera de Cartagena La Unión, Spain. For this purpose, the cartography and inventory of the different types of mining and metallurgical waste were carried out (open-pit spoils, post-flotation stores in tailings ponds, gravity concentration spoils, gossan...

RESUMEN El Ayuntamiento de Cartagena (Murcia) está promoviendo un nuevo ensanche urbano al este de la ciudad, llamado Plan Urbanístico del Hondón. Dicho plan afecta a una franja de terrenos situados inmediatamente al este de la ciudad y al norte de la Sierra de Cartagena. En su mayor parte se trata de unos antiguos terrenos industriales, que ocupan...

The aim of this technical report is providing a complete environmental characterization of the tailings dam abandoned "El Lirio" (IGME inventory Nº 0978-1-0026). This includes different aspect: 1. Historical evolution of the deposit and terrain digital model. 2. Geophysical study: nine electrical resistivity tomography profiles were surveyed. 3. G...