Motol Landfill, an ecological audit, a survey, risk analysis, a feasibility study

The project is concerned with a survey and evaluation of risks of an unclaimed, but partially modified landfill founded in the second half of the 20th century as a landfill of inert material, particularly for depositing excavated rocks and soils during the construction of the Prague Metro. The intensive deposition of waste took place practically over the whole time until the present, fully spontaneously without a more essential concept of reclamation, systematic compaction, monitoring and observation of volume limits.

Within the current survey work, geological, hydrogeological, geophysical, geodetic and geotechnical surveys were carried out, including drilling work, down-hole logging, measurement using a hand-operated X-ray analyser, hydrodynamic tests, atmogeochemical measurements, sampling and analytical work. The work also included the development of a model of groundwater flow and transport of particles, preparation of hypsography data of a digital terrain model, and the analysis of the development of the area on the basis of aerial survey photographs.

It was detected that the quality of groundwater had been degraded due to the deposited wastes which contain hazardous substances. The landfill body is unstable, because it was not compacted during filling and contains a large number of caverns. The risks of landslides were identified particularly in the northern part of the area, in which a forest and a forest path are found, but no dwellings, therefore forest land can be degraded and visitors put at risk. A health risk due to the increased concentrations of contaminants deposited in wastes was identified for workmen carrying out reclamation, excavation or remediation work. For this reason, scenarios of remedial measured were designed.