On May 30, UMR 5600 EVS and Mines Saint-Étienne hosted the Lyon-Saint-Étienne hub day during the “Ecology, Environment and Biodiversity – Understanding socio-ecosystems to take action” week organized by the INEE.
Following the morning’s indoor presentations, the PEG department of the Centre for Chemical Engineering (SPIN) and the Mines Saint-Étienne component of UMR 5600 Environment City Society (EVS/EMSE) offered a field visit.
The Neyron brownfield site as an experimental ground
This visit was organized and led by F. Paran (Research Engineer), O. Faure (Lecturer), S. Peuble (Research Engineer), R. Seillier (PhD student) and M. Lhospital (M2 intern). It took place on the Neyron brownfield site, a former industrial site located in the city center of the Saint-Étienne metropolitan area.
The work conducted by Mines Saint-Étienne on this site is part of the “soil” innovation axis (2023-2024) of the Sustainable City Demonstrators (DVD) project. This project is led by EPA Saint-Étienne and supported by the France 2030 investment plan.
Indeed, on the Neyron site, there are significant challenges concerning the development of polluted industrial brownfield sites. Two tasks are currently underway:
- Evolving current depollution practices by considering the bioavailability of elements in the soil.
- Considering open-ground agriculture (vegetable cultivation) by reconstituting fertile soil. The ultimate goal is to characterize pollutant transfers from soil to living organisms and to map recommendations for future development (e.g., favorable locations for open-ground cultivation, biodiversity islands, methodology…).
