Author Description

This book, originally published in 2008, has been completely revised to reflect the significant gains in knowledge, both research and field experience, that has occurred in most parts of the tropics and semi-tropics over the past seven years relating to phytoremedial applications of the Vetiver System. Over that time Vetiver System applications for the decontamination or containment of polluted water and land has shown significant success, and as a result there is a growing interest in its application for the mitigation of many water/land related problems that are nowadays often overwhelming communities, both rural and urban, due to poverty, population pressures, lack of public financing, and climate change. The applications described in this book can be used at various scales by a very wide range of users, and have particular potential for providing the means for communities to create resilience to climate change and environmental disaster, at low cost (often independent from formal public services), that will allow a more secure and better quality of life. An important objective of this is to introduce the Vetiver System to planners, design engineers and other potential users, who continue to be unaware of the effectiveness of the Vetiver System for improving water quality, particularly that associated with effluent discharge and leachate flows from industrial sites, contaminated mining sites, polluted urban/domestic waste water, and sadly and more too often agro-chemical contaminated farm land. The book is well illustrated with many color photos, figures, and tables that support the text.