The importance of soil in the development of the natural processes, its role in the productive activities, its deniable social value and its interaction with the aquatic system, make this resource an object of control, preservation and remediation of damages that, due to the soil hardly renewable nature, would have a serious environmental impact.

Soil contamination can come from diffuse sources (air deposition, agriculture, etc.) or local sources, these last being related to anthropogenic activities that are potentially soil contaminating activities. According to data from the EU, Spain, and particularly the Autonomous Community of Madrid, it can be considered that heavy metals, toxic organic compounds (including Non Aqueous Liquids Phases, NAPLs) and combinations of both are the main problem of point sources of soil contamination in our community.

The efficient treatment of soil local contamination must be carried out multidisciplinarily, integrating aspects such as the characterization of the focus and contamination plume generated, the understanding of the transfer of pollution to the aquifer or the atmosphere, the application of effective remediation techniques, the monitoring of the process before and after the treatment and the evaluation of the risks related to the type of contamination and remediation technique.

Besides, since these stages may lead to important costs, it is necessary to select processes technologically and economically viable. These processes involve advanced technologies that require new developing of knowledge, being necessary the contribution of several researching groups specialized in the fields previously cited, as they are those integrating CARESOIL Program. Methodology and scientific advances developed by CARESOIL will be corrected and validated in the application of real cases. It has been selected the case of landfills and hydrocarbon spills as representative examples of soil local contamination in the Autonomous Community of Madrid.

One of the objectives of CARESOIL is to develop activities that encourage technology transfer, so it is therefore essential the contribution of companies/corporations as associated partners to CARESOIL.