Preface

Chapter 7 **Ensiling Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) and Orchard Grass**

Chapter 8 **Tropical Forage Legumes in India: Status and Scope for Sustaining Livestock Production 123**

Vikas C. Tyagi and Ajoy Kumar Roy

Chapter 9 **Bana Grass Growing in Sub Saharan Africa 145**

**Bacterial Inoculant 107**

Pelayo

**VI** Contents

Zivanayi Matore

**(Dactylis glomerata L.) Forage Harvested at 08:00 or 14:00, without Wilting or 1 or 2 h Wilting and with or without Use of**

Ricardo D. Améndola-Massiotti, Renato González-Ortiz, Luis A. Miranda-Romero, Juan A. Burgueño-Ferreira and Pedro Topete-

Tejveer Singh, Srinivasan Ramakrishnan, Sanat Kumar Mahanta,

The book **Forage Groups** gathers information about forage plants that are used in different regions around the world as animal food. This book contains data from studies with native and cultivated species and presents information about cultivation and use of these forage plants, in a clear and direct way. The target readers are researchers, students, and farmers who will be able to apply the present knowledge on forage cultivation, harvesting, and con‐ servation. Another interesting point of view is the use of legumes in animal feed, beyond bringing a crucial analysis about carbon dioxide – CO2 produced in the pastures. The au‐ thors are from many countries around the world and this allows an analysis and exchange of information. The editors would like to thank the researchers and their staff and institu‐ tions for their time and knowledge.

> **Dr. Ricardo Loiola Edvan** Animal Science Department Piaui Federal University Teresina, Brazil

**Dr. Edson Mauro Santos** Animal Science Department Paraiba Federal University Teresina, Brazil

**Chapter 1**

Provisional chapter

**Effectiveness of Grassland Vegetation on a Temporary**

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.80324

We studied the effectiveness of grassland vegetation of a temporary capping system consisting of differently compacted boulder marl and its impact on the water balance components. This study presents the modelled water balances for the period between 2008 and 2015, performed with HELP 3.95 D (German edition). The model requires landfill design and weather data as well as soil physical and evapotranspiration parameters including the leaf area indices and evaporative zone depth with regard to the grassland vegetation. The modelled average annual actual evapotranspiration rates ranged between 277 and 390 mm year-1 or rather 33 and 66% of the annual precipitation (10-year average of 728 mm). The actual evapotranspiration rates are strongly influenced by the maximum leaf area indices that increased between 2008 and 2015 from 1.0 to 3.5 as well as the evaporative zone depth that also increased from 20 cm in 2008 to 50 cm in 2015. The empirical-mathematical–based HELP model is a useful option to successfully determine the water balance components of a landfill capping system under the given weather and

Keywords: HELP model, water balance, actual evapotranspiration, leachate generation,

In a global perspective, landfill sites still represent the major option of waste disposal not only in developing countries [1]. In Germany, the qualitative criteria of landfills are legally fixed according to the [2] and define the vegetative and technical standards for engineered barriers [3].

> © 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and eproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use,

distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

site conditions including the development of the grassland vegetation.

Effectiveness of Grassland Vegetation on a Temporary

**Capped Landfill Site**

Capped Landfill Site

Horst Gerke and Rainer Horn

Horst Gerke and Rainer Horn

Abstract

vegetation growth

1. Introduction

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.80324

Steffen Beck-Broichsitter, Heiner Fleige,

Steffen Beck-Broichsitter, Heiner Fleige,

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

#### **Effectiveness of Grassland Vegetation on a Temporary Capped Landfill Site** Effectiveness of Grassland Vegetation on a Temporary Capped Landfill Site

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.80324

Steffen Beck-Broichsitter, Heiner Fleige, Horst Gerke and Rainer Horn Steffen Beck-Broichsitter, Heiner Fleige, Horst Gerke and Rainer Horn

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.80324

#### Abstract

We studied the effectiveness of grassland vegetation of a temporary capping system consisting of differently compacted boulder marl and its impact on the water balance components. This study presents the modelled water balances for the period between 2008 and 2015, performed with HELP 3.95 D (German edition). The model requires landfill design and weather data as well as soil physical and evapotranspiration parameters including the leaf area indices and evaporative zone depth with regard to the grassland vegetation. The modelled average annual actual evapotranspiration rates ranged between 277 and 390 mm year-1 or rather 33 and 66% of the annual precipitation (10-year average of 728 mm). The actual evapotranspiration rates are strongly influenced by the maximum leaf area indices that increased between 2008 and 2015 from 1.0 to 3.5 as well as the evaporative zone depth that also increased from 20 cm in 2008 to 50 cm in 2015. The empirical-mathematical–based HELP model is a useful option to successfully determine the water balance components of a landfill capping system under the given weather and site conditions including the development of the grassland vegetation.

Keywords: HELP model, water balance, actual evapotranspiration, leachate generation, vegetation growth

#### 1. Introduction

In a global perspective, landfill sites still represent the major option of waste disposal not only in developing countries [1]. In Germany, the qualitative criteria of landfills are legally fixed according to the [2] and define the vegetative and technical standards for engineered barriers [3].

© 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and eproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

In case of this study, semipermeable, temporary capping systems intend a specific shutdown of the bioreactor, containing heterogeneous wastes and different amounts of biodegradable material, through controlled infiltration of precipitation into the waste body [4] and also allow biogas extraction [5].

Temporary capping systems regularly consist of a recultivated layer, a drainage layer, and a sealing layer consisting of mineral substrates or in combination with polymers [6]. The major aim of the recultivated layer is to restrain landfill gas migration and to minimise leachate generation (precipitation contaminated with heavy metals or polycyclic hydrocarbons) by a high water storage capacity in combination with a distinct evapotranspiration rate from the vegetation and soil surface [3, 7].

Therefore, the choice of a locally adapted vegetation type (grassland, shrubs, forest) is essential to ensure high evapotranspiration rates (grassland: 450–550 mm year�<sup>1</sup> ), a quick vegetation establishment (erosion protection, slope stability), and avoid deep shrinkage-induced cracking (capillary rise from deeper horizons) and rooting to protect the sealing layer as last barrier above the waste body depending on the thickness of the recultivated layer [4, 8–10].

The functional requirements of the vegetation in the nutrient and water availability considering a proper air capacity and plant available water capacity [2], whereby the technical challenges in landfill construction, compacted installation versus loose installation of mineral substrates, can significantly influence the growth conditions of the vegetation [3].

The temporary capped area of nearly 75,000 m2 with three sections (I: 21,275 m2

Figure 1. Digital elevation model of the Rastorf landfill with the temporary capped area (section I–III) [15].

bottom layer collects the leachate before the treatment by inverse osmosis (Figure 2).

) consists of three mineral layers (boulder marl) with a partially permeable recultivated

Effectiveness of Grassland Vegetation on a Temporary Capped Landfill Site

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.80324

layer (humus topsoil: 40 cm, humus-poor subsoil: 30 cm) and, below this layer, is a low permeable, 30 cm thick mineral sealing layer, which serves as a water and root barrier to prevent leachate formation and the groundwater contamination. The bottom layer consists of hardly permeable up to 20 m thick clay. A high-density polymer of 2.5 mm thickness and a drainage system above the

Figure 2. Schematic cross section through the temporary capped area with water balance components, data logger and

measuring devices in 20, 50, 80 and 100 cm depth.

22,208 m2

, II: 29,961 m2

, III:

3

The effectiveness of the vegetation can be assessed by the water balance or rather the leachate generation under the specific climate and soil conditions [4, 11, 12]. There are several modelling approaches of landfill capping systems, with and without polymers, combining water balance calculations with the predominant statistical-empirical Hydrologic Evaluation of Landfill Performance (HELP) model [13] or numerical models like Finite Element subsurface FLOW system (FEFLOW) [14]. Such predictive models can be used to support the planning of a landfill and/or to optimise the particular system from an economic point of view [12] and to verify the longterm hydraulic stability of a final capping system.

This study presents modelled water balance data and in particular the annual leachate rate of the Rastorf landfill during an 8-year period in the context of (a) grassland vegetation and (b) local weather conditions.
