A review on soil cover in waste and contaminant containment: design, monitoring, and modeling

Soil cover is a widely-used but relatively new method for solid waste containment. Standard while site-specific procedures for cover design, monitoring, and evaluation are needed to insure reliable cover performance. This paper presents a review of soil cover types, design principles and procedures, cover monitoring, and long-term performance modeling. Cover types and cover design are introduced with the general concepts and discussed on their specific applicabilities in different circumstances. Detailed discussion is given on unsaturated flow system properties and their field measurements, including methods, apparatuses/equipments and their advantages and disadvantages. Several unsaturated flow simulators are discussed and compared with regards to their simulation capacities for critical parameters closely related to soil cover performance such as runoff, infiltration and evaporation. Finally, research subjects are suggested for future work for better soil cover monitoring and modeling.