Next Article in Journal
Multilevel Assessment of Seismic Damage and Vulnerability of Masonry Buildings (MUSE-DV) in Historical Centers: Development of a Mobile Android Application
Previous Article in Journal
Modeling of a Combined Kalina and Organic Rankine Cycle System for Waste Heat Recovery from Biogas Engine
 
 
Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
Journals
Sustainability
Volume 14
Issue 12
10.3390/su14127138
sustainability-logo
Submit to this Journal Review for this Journal Propose a Special Issue
► Article Menu

Article Menu

share Share announcement Help format_quote Cite question_answer Discuss in SciProfiles thumb_up
...
Endorse textsms
...
Comment
first_page
settings
Order Article Reprints
Font Type:
Arial Georgia Verdana
Font Size:
Aa Aa Aa
Line Spacing:
Column Width:
Background:
Review

Soil Chemical Pollution and Military Actions: A Bibliometric Analysis

by
Tamás Stadler
1,
Ágoston Temesi
2 and
Zoltán Lakner
2,3,*
1
Department of Physics and Chemistry, Hungarian Institute for Forensic Sciences, 1087 Budapest, Hungary
2
Department of Food Chain Management, Institute of Economic Sciences, Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences, 1118 Budapest, Hungary
3
Department of Economics, Kebbi State University of Science and Technology, Aliero P.O. Box 2033, Nigeria
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Sustainability 2022, 14(12), 7138; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14127138
Submission received: 2 April 2022 / Revised: 28 May 2022 / Accepted: 5 June 2022 / Published: 10 June 2022
Browse Figures
Review Reports Versions Notes

Abstract

:
Contrary to the optimistic expectations three decades ago, global military expenditure is increasing rather rapidly, fueled by the increasing intensity of international tensions. As a consequence of this, the military-caused soil pollution gains in importance. On the basis of a bibliometric analysis of 3500 articles, it is obvious that the level of interest in this topic has been rather fluctuating in the last decades, but in the last years, more than two hundred and fifty new publications have been appearing annually. The majority of publications are authored by US, Chinese, and Western European authors. Five main research areas could be identified by the cluster analysis of the following keywords: Heavy metal pollution, water resource pollution, consequences of soil pollution in the food chain, pollution by organic components and soil remediation, and analytic method development. The most central problem of research is heavy metal contamination. The basic topics of research are risk management, water contamination, and the depleted uranium problem. There is a further need to study the possibilities of decreasing of level of chemical pollutants, especially heavy metals.

1. Introduction

Importance of the Problem

It is hard to underestimate the importance of soil in the ecosystem. As the Hungarian soil scientist Pál Stefanovits (1920–2016) has coined it: “Never forget: You are not just standing, but living on the soil” [1].
Military operations have considerable influence on the natural condition of the soil. The most important consequences of these actions on the soil are summarized in Table 1. This table is based on the original idea of Broomandi et al. (2020) [2].
The latest events in the world (e.g., war in Ukraine) [11] and their wide-range media coverage [12] considerably increase the professional and public attention towards the environmental burden in general [13,14,15], and for the soil pollution in particular [16,17] caused by military actions. The importance of the question is increasing because—contrary to the optimistic expectations some decades ago—the military expenditures are rapidly increasing (Figure 1): Currently, their level is 26% higher than in the last years of the cold war era.
Generally, there are two basic domains where military operations directly harm the soil: (1) chemical contamination [14,19] and (2) modification of the mechanical structure of the soil [20]. Of course, the indirect effects of military operations on the soil are much wider, e.g., deforestation [21] as a consequence of bombing or application of chemical defoliants [22] will increase the erosion. In the current article, we will focus on chemical contamination of soils because this is more specific to military operations than the soil compaction, which could be caused by numerous other human activities (e.g., agricultural works by the application of heavyweight tractors [23]).
If we want to decrease the pollution of military operations, we have to build up a coherent strategy and this, in turn, necessitates the systematic collection and analysis of the current state of art knowledge.
The goal of the current article is threefold: (1) Demonstrating how the bibliometric analysis can be applied to map the basic characteristic features of military-caused soil-contamination research, (2) determining the most important research activities, map up the intellectual and geographical structure of research, (3) outlining further ways of development for better understanding of the ‘military activity’—‘soil condition’ problem and the most effective ways of decreasing the adverse consequences of military activities.
The bibliometric analysis cannot be considered an alternative to the high-quality systematic reviews, however, because of its big data approach, it can supply additional information to the formation of the “large picture” of a given field of science [24,25]. Bibliometric analysis is widely used to determine the position of a given field of science. Of course, this necessitates a relatively high quantity of primary data sources (publications). In our opinion, in the case of military action soil pollution context in our time, soon there will be enough accumulated knowledge and publications to carry out a relatively comprehensive bibliometric analysis.
To the best of our knowledge, the current article is the first attempt to outline the most important directions of soil pollution by the application of the “big-data”-based bibliometric (scientometric) approach. Formerly, a couple of high-quality review articles have been written on this topic. The most comprehensive one was prepared by Broomandi et al. (2020). Broomandi et al. (2020) have determined a soil pollution index (SPI), which is a geometric mean of the ratios of soil concentration of potentially toxic elements (e.g., Hg, As, Cd, Cu, Ni) and their background („normal”) concentration [2].
They have determined that the soil pollution on military training grounds is higher by two to four orders of magnitude than the background value. The level of ergodic contamination is influenced by the considerable on-site mitigation.
The current article is structured as follows: In the “Materials and Methods” chapter, we offer a brief overview of the key steps of the research. In preparation of the article, we have applied only open-source software, therefore, if researchers have access to the WoS database, they will be able to replicate the current work. The “Results” section consists of four key sub-chapters: The first part offers a general overview of the database and the research networks, the second one analyses the epistemological background of the current knowledge base, the third part outlines the main directions of the research, and the fourth sub-chapter determines the evaluation of different sub-clusters. On the basis of this research, a general model is developed in the last chapter of the work, which seems to be suitable to be a theoretical framework for further studies on the topic, promoting the formation of adequate policies.

2. Materials and Methods

The workflow of bibliometric analysis has followed the generally applied practice of similar studies, but the combination of different algorithms and software to achieve optimal results can be considered a methodological novelty. Our research consisted of four main phases:
  • Choosing the most suitable database as the supply of raw data for the analysis. In this step of the research, we determined the most suitable database for our purpose. In general, there are different potential resources for bibliometric analysis. The most easily accessible would be Google Scholar. This is the most comprehensive database [26] where the sources from developing countries and the grey literature are well represented, but the database is rather confusing, the criteria of entry of publications into this database are not well-defined, that is why its usefulness for bibliometric research is highly questionable [27,28]. The Scopus database is another potential candidate as a data source [29], but in this case, the quality control system needs improvement [30,31]. After substantial consideration, we decided to apply the Web of Science (WoS) database because of its wide coverage of natural science disciplines and the quality of data [32]. There is a wide consensus in the literature that this database is suitable for systematic reviews and bibliometric analyses in various parts of science, from medicine to informatics [33,34].
  • Optimization of the search strategy in the database. This phase consisted of determining the optimal combination of relevant keywords by the application of applied ‘try and error’ based heuristics. The system of WoS offers a wide variety of setting up of search strategies. Different keyword combinations were tested. The best results were obtained by application of the search term as follows:
TS = (“soil” AND (“pollut*” OR “contamin*” OR “emis*” OR “toxi*” OR
“sewag*” OR “befoul”) AND (“milit*” OR “arm*”) NOT (“armen*”))
We did not apply any restrictions on the language or the document type because we a considerable set of materials was published in non-English languages, not necessarily in the form of high-quality journal publications (the number of journals focusing on military topics is extremely low, compared to the importance of the topics, e.g., there is not a separate Web of Science category for “Military sciences” in WoS categorization system, and there is no such subject area in Scopus system, either).
On this base, we were able to collect all the bibliometric units in the database available at the date of data collection (15 February 2022). Therefore, there has not been any sample bias. The only inclusion criterium was the satisfaction of the Boolean algebraic search criterion defined above.
3.
Analysis of the database. In this phase, we had determined the characteristic features of the database according to the following indicators:
  • Basic characteristic features of the dataset, determination of intellectual and geographical properties of the data [35]. For this purpose, we applied the Bibliometrix software developed by Aria and Corrado (2017) [36].
  • Analysis of the development of international cooperation patterns. For this purpose, we applied the Cytoscape software and its packages [37].
  • Outlining of the epistemological development of knowledge on ‘military activity’—‘soil contamination’ problem, followed by the clustering of articles based on their resources, cited in different publications on the base of algorithms offered by CitNetExplorer software, as a result of the work of van Eck and Ludo (2014) [38].
  • The basic directions of the research were characterized and visualized by the clustering of co-occurrence of words. For this purpose we applied the VOSviewer software, developed by van Eck and Ludo (2010) [39].
4.
The pieces of information obtained in the third phase of the research lend themselves to determining some generalizable deductions and suggestions for further improvement of environmental policy, regulatory framework, research, and human resource development.

3. Results

3.1. General Characteristic Features of the Database

The analysis of the dynamics of the number of publications (Figure 2) shows that—even though the first publication appeared in the database as early as in 1977—one can speak of a continuous publication activity only from 1985. The interest in the topics was boosted in the first half of the nineties by two factors: The collapse of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Treaty Organization (collective defense treaty established between the Soviet Union and its satellite states in Central and Eastern Europe). These processes caused a considerable re-location of armed forces, especially in Europe and Central Asia [16]. The abandoned training grounds, airfields, ports, etc. can be characterized by considerable environmental pollution [40]. The above-mentioned changes in the international political atmosphere created new possibilities for scientists to apply well-founded methods to determine the burden on the environment caused by military operations [41]. Obviously, neither the problem of recultivation of abandoned military bases nor the Gulf War [42] has been able to generate a continuous increase in the number of publications.
At the same time, the increase in the intensity of military operations (e.g., wars in the Middle and Near East [43]) parallelly generated a new level of interest in this problem, reflected by the increasing number of publications. A possible explanation of the reverse trend in the number of articles on these topics at the end of the first decade of the new millennium could be the global financial crisis and its adverse consequences on research budgets [44]. In the last years, we have witnessed a new, rather rapid increase in publications. This higher level of attention towards the soil-related consequences of military activities can be explained by two parallel processes: The increasing interest in sustainable development, that is, the growing sensitivity to the environmental burden, as well as the increasing international tensions all over the world.
Based on the above dynamics, for more detailed analysis, we have divided the database into three parts: From the beginning of the publication activity to 2005, from 2006 to 2015, and the latest period from 2016 to the first quarter of 2022.
The database consisted of 3532 items. The number of cited references is rather high: 21.4 per article. As a total, nearly 130 thousand articles were cited. This fact highlights the complexity of the problem. The number of single-author articles was extremely low: 390. This number is hardly more than 10% of the total number of articles. This fact is another proof of the topic’s complexity. The average number of authors per document was 3.33.
Analyzing the geographic distribution of articles on the base of the corresponding author’s nationality, it is obvious that 83% of the total number of articles is produced in twelve countries. The majority of the articles have been written in the most developed states (Table 2). This can be explained by the fact that in the conflicts of the last half century, the military of the most developed states (e.g., USA, UK, France) have taken an active part from Vietnam to Afghanistan. On the other hand, in these countries, we see an extremely strong green movement, and the sensibility of the population towards environmental pollution is very high. As a result, there is a pressure on governments in general and military in particular to pay considerable attention to environmental problems and to the adverse consequences of military activity. In the case of some countries (e.g., China), the analysis of soil offers a favorable possibility to prepare a preventive (pro-active) environmental policy. Last but not least, for some countries (e.g., Italy, Germany, South Korea, France), the environmental consequences of military activities in the first and second world wars remain only partially known. If we calculate a regression between the number of articles written on this problem and the military expenditures, determined on the basis of the internationally recognized Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, converted to US dollar, it is obvious that there is only a relatively low level of correlation between military spending and the articles on the ‘military activity’—‘soil pollution’ (Figure 3). This fact highlights that this question is in focus only in a few relatively developed countries. Numerous heavy spending countries have paid little attention to the systematic review of this problem.
The international cooperation between different countries, measured by co-authorships in different publications was developed in an evolving manner. The first period can be characterized by a rather low level of international cooperation (Figure 4), but later on, this was considerably broadened (Figure 5). From 2016 through 2022, the international cooperation network was a rather intensive one (Figure 6). (Based on the analysis of the intensity of connections, it is obvious that the US had a preeminent role in this activity. These international cooperations have been essential to technology transfer. One can only hope that at least one part of these will remain even after the war in Ukraine.)

3.2. Epistemiological Base of the Problem

Epistemology is a field of science dealing with problems in the development of our knowledge [45]. We analyzed 2742 citation links between the different resources. On the basis of these links, eight groups of publications were separated. The distribution of these publications according to clusters is depicted in Figure 7.
The largest group of publications analyses the effect of organic energetic compounds on the environment. The second cluster consists of papers focusing on heavy metal and trace element pollution of the fields. The third group of publications is devoted to the study of the relationship between magnetic parameters and soil contamination. The fourth cluster applies a more holistic approach, analyzing the impact of military operations on the biosphere. In this cluster, the investigation of depleted uranium has relatively high importance. This problem is analyzed on the basis of experiences of the Gulf war and armed conflicts in former Yugoslavia. Cluster No. 5 deals with the military-caused problems from the point of view of ecotoxicology, mainly on the base of analysis of collembola and fungi. A small group of publications focuses on the possibilities of soil bio- and phytoremediation. Another group of papers deals with a rather specific aspect: the application of miscanthus × giganteus in phytoremediation procedure. The last group of publications analyses some microbiological aspects found on military training sites, but these are not directly associated with the problems of soil pollution.

3.3. Thematic Overview on Main Directions of the Research

We analyzed the most important directions of research on the basis of clustering of words in title, keywords, and abstracts of documents. The results of this phase of the research are depicted in Figure 8.
The largest group of publications analyzes the effect of organic energetic compounds on the environment (depicted in green color). Interestingly, here, in this cluster, the possibilities of bioremediation and phytoremediation are indicated. The application of biological materials for decreasing soil contamination has received a considerable level of interest since the nineties of the last century. This can be explained by the fact that this potential method of improvement of soil condition needs intensive research because (1) a considerable number of pollutants cannot be cleaned up with the use of bioremediation [46], (2) in some cases, the biological pathways of decontamination can lead to even more dangerous products [47], (3) the most straightforward way of development is the application of genetically modified microbes or plants, but the current regulatory system in numerous countries goes against this development [48].
Groundwater pollution and phytoremediation connect this cluster with two other ones. One of them focuses on water resource pollution (depicted in purple color), and the other cluster symbolizes the results of migration of toxic components in the food chain (depicted in Figure 8 by navy blue color). A small, relatively compact cluster focuses on analytical method development, this is depicted by orange. The second-largest cluster contains the research dealing with heavy metal contamination. This cluster connects with others via topics of remediation and bioaccumulation.

3.4. Strategic Mapping of Basic Directions of Research

As we have seen, the rigorous research on the consequences of military activities on soil pollution is a relatively young, evolving field of science. That is why the understanding of the direction of development can be important to get a more complex picture regarding the ways of future research activities. Cobo et al. have developed a method based on the clustering of articles to determine the position of different research topics in the intellectual space [49]. Their method consisted of two steps: The determination of the clusters of the topics on the base of co-occurrence of relevant words and on the base of citation analysis to determine the characteristic features of intellectual dialogues within and between these clusters. According to their theory, the position of various topics can be depicted in a two-dimensional space determined by the intensity of dialogues (expressed by the number of citations) between the clusters and the intensity of citations within the clusters. The former indicator is called centrality, the latter is density. According to their theory, if a topic is “hot” then there is an intense dialogue within the cluster, containing this topic and between the different clusters. These topics are called motor themes by the authors. Some other themes are intensively cited, but there is a relatively low intensity dialogue within these clusters. These are highly developed and relatively isolated issues. The emerging and developing/or declining topics can be characterized by a low level of density and centrality because the academic community has not yet been organized around these topics. A further group of topics can be characterized by a high level of interest in the topics, but the intensity of communication within this cluster is relatively low. These are the basic topics which are considered a cornerstone of further development.
Along the two basic axes, centrality and density, we can visualize the position of different topics. Applying this approach to our case, we can see that the first two decades of research had been characterized by a high variety of topics (Figure 9). The development of modern analytical methods in biochemistry and biogeochemistry has offered a favorable possibility to understand the importance of soil pollution caused by military activity. The motor themes, at that time, were focusing on such problems. Bioremediation was a relatively new topic, that is why it was isolated from other ones. At that time, the very first articles were published on the environmental consequences of the “Desert storm” operation for the liberation of Kuwait, but these efforts were not able to create considerable international attention. In this period, the most important basis of the research was the formerly accumulated knowledge on toxicology and water resource pollution.
The research on military-caused chemical pollution of soil has been intensified due to the increasing attention on the Gulf War syndrome (Gulf War illness), a multi-symptomatic disorder of military veterans who have participated in the Persian Gulf War [50]. One possible cause of this syndrome is the depleted uranium used as a kinetic energy penetrator [51] or the chemical weapons (e.g., sarin nerve agent) which were supposedly released during the bombings of the Iraqi Chemical warfare production facilities [52].
The lessons learned as a consequence of wars in former Yugoslavia have further increased the level of interest in the topics [53].
The second period can be characterized (Figure 10) by an increasing variety of topics, but—with the exception of heavy metal detection and analysis—it is hard to determine which themes would have been able to generate an intense discourse. The foundations of the research were the topics concerning depleted uranium sedimentation, water pollution, traditional energetic components (e.g., TNT), and consequences on public health. Rapid development in medicine offered a considerable increase in knowledge in the field of biochemistry, but these topics have been rather isolated yet.
It is important to highlight that among the different topics categorized as basic themes, there is considerable overlapping because all of these are tightly connected to the general conditions of environmental geochemistry.
The increasing data and evidence on interactions between soil pollution and the health condition of military personnel have been studied with increasing intensity, but the results of these analyses had been applied in other fields of the sciences (e.g., medicine).
In the military operations, there has been an increasing role of the uranium as an important component of anti-tank missiles.
The last years of military-caused soil pollution research can be characterized as a more focused continuation of former research activities. This can be explained by the fact that the focus of research has been shifting from research on former theaters of war to military training grounds and modern wars.
In the last years, publications have been focusing on topics concerning the contamination caused by heavy metals in general and lead as well as cadmium in particular (Figure 11). Research results on water pollution, both in-vitro and in-vivo experiments on animals, are the basis of further research efforts.
The analysis of the consequences of chemical warfare agents has been remaining as a highly developed but relatively isolated topic. Among the emerging topics, we can see emission modeling supported by relatively easily available environmental modeling tools.

4. Discussion and Conclusions

The results of the bibliometric analysis of research activities concerning the soil pollution caused by military activities highlight that the systematic analysis of this problem began more than forty years ago, but the level of interest has shown considerable fluctuations. In the last ten years, there has been an increasing number of publications on these topics, but the majority of the papers have been published in some relatively highly developed states. There is only a low level of correlation between military expenditures and military-related research activity focusing on soil pollution, measured in a number of academic papers. This fact highlights the neglected position of this topic in numerous countries, which allocates considerable resources for the development of their military capacities. This contradiction could lead to a decrease in the quality of the environment. The most important factor of military-activity-related soil chemical pollution is the heavy metal contamination because in such cases, we cannot expect natural degradation. This fact is in line with the results of Broomandi et al. (2020) and is well reflected in tendencies of the focus-shifting of works [2].
Based on our results, four suggestions can be formulated for further development:
  • The migration of ergodic components and heavy metals must be analyzed in a more detailed way. This has immense economic importance because this factor can be decisive in the conversion of former, military training grounds and facilities into civil utilization and for the determination of the value of the given site.
  • Further research is needed for the determination of the environmental effects of uranium depletion.
  • The latest results of genetic engineering (genetic edition) open new horizons for bioremediation techniques.
  • It is a lesser studied but very important sphere regarding the analysis of the efficiency of environmental education of military personnel, e.g., if a serviceperson learns in the army the importance of good, environmentally-conscious methods of cleaning and maintenance of the military technology, this knowledge and skills will be transformed into the civilian life too, changing the behavior and attitudes of the population.
International cooperation has been developing rather rapidly in the last decades, but this cooperative work is vulnerable to political tensions. It is highly questionable how international knowledge transfer can be maintained under conditions of intense conflicts. Without these, the development of environment-related research projects will be limited to some local places.
As we have seen, the topics are rather diverse and complex, and there is a need to develop practical programs to decrease soil pollution caused by military activity demands system-based approaches. The most important parts of this are depicted in Figure 12.
Obviously, the regulatory framework development is essential if we would like to achieve an optimal synergy between different factors depicted in Figure 12 by A–B–C–D polygon. This is true for the allocation of monetary resources for environmental research and the more flexible regulation of new technologies, e.g., molecular genetics. Currently, the rigid regulation of genetically engineered organisms in the EU is an efficient barrier to the further development of phytoremediation projects [54]. The academic knowledge base is increasing rather rapidly, but—as we have seen on the base of analysis of dynamics of publications—the different projects depend on financial resources. It is clear that the best results can be achieved on the base of long-range research efforts, which demand well predictable material resources. The technological background development involves a continuous modernization of military technology. In this case, the decision-makers need to strike a balance between military performance, cost efficiency, and environmental aspects. Last but not least, the human factor development is central from two interrelating aspects: The better trained, more environmentally conscious soldier pays more attention to the environmental consequences of his/her decisions (e.g., the organization of cleaning of the military technics). Therefore, the efforts for environmental education of military personnel must be considered a long-range investment because these educational efforts will contribute to the general upgrading of the knowledge level of the society on technology-environment interrelationships. Conscripted or professional soldiers, after leaving the army, can be important advocates of the application of environment-friendly methods in all fields of life.
Last but not least, our results highlight the relatively under-represented, weak position of military sciences in the global landscape of sciences. Taking into consideration the importance and weight of the military sector in different parts of the society, there should be better integrated military-related knowledge in the body of the science in general and sustainability-related goals in particular.
At the end of this analysis, some limitations of our research should be mentioned:
  • We focused on published, international sources, which appear in the WoS Core international database. Because of the sensitivity of the topics, there could be important results that have not been published or are not publicly available.
  • The current resources focus mainly on environmental pollution caused by peacetime operations, maneuvers, or military operations in a relatively well-defined theatre of war. The consequences of large-scale modern warfare operations, such as the Ukraine-Russia conflict, are practically unknown.
  • As we have seen, the knowledge base on military action soil contamination problem is growing continuously. Therefore, there is a need to further sophisticate the bibliometric and systematic review research focusing on some specific categories (e.g., phytoremediation, migration of chemical components from land mines, application of remote sensing technologies). An in-depth analysis of these problems goes well beyond the imits of the current article.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, T.S., Z.L.; methodology, Z.L.; validation, T.S.; formal analysis, Á.T.; investigation, T.S.; data curation, T.S.; writing—original draft preparation, Z.L.; writing—review and editing, T.S., Á.T, visualization, Z.L. and T.S.; funding acquisition, Z.L. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Funding

This research received no external funding.

Data Availability Statement

Web of Science: https://www.webofscience.com/wos/woscc/summary/e69763b3-d451-46d9-be95-58a5b51dc44c-3cad992c/relevance/1 (accessed on 1 April 2022). SIPRI: https://milex.sipri.org/sipri (accessed on 1 April 2022).

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

References

  1. Várallyay, G. Stefanovits Pál (1920–2016). Agrokémia És Talajt. 2016, 65, 187–191. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  2. Broomandi, P.; Guney, M.; Kim, J.R.; Karaca, F. Soil Contamination in Areas Impacted by Military Activities: A Critical Review. Sustainability 2020, 12, 9002. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  3. Ashley, A.J.; Touchton, M. Reconceiving Military Base Redevelopment: Land Use on Mothballed U.S. Bases. Urban Aff. Rev. 2016, 52, 391–420. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  4. Kiersch, G.A. Engineering geosciences and military operations. Eng. Geol. 1998, 49, 123–176. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  5. Anderson, A.B.; Palazzo, A.J.; Ayers, P.D.; Fehmi, J.S.; Shoop, S.A.; Sullivan, P.M. Assessing the impacts of military vehicle traffic on natural areas. Introduction to the special issue and review of the relevant military vehicle impact literature. J. Terramechanics 2005, 42, 143–158. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  6. Kastánek, F.; Demnerová, K. Biodegradation of Petroleum Hydrocarbons After the Departure of the Soviet Army. In Proceedings of the Clean-up of Former Soviet Military Installations, Berlin, Germany, 1 April 1995; pp. 133–140. [Google Scholar]
  7. Garbino, H. The Impact of Landmines and Explosive Remnants of War on Food Security: The Lebanese Case. J. Conv. Weapons Destr. 2019, 23, 21–26. [Google Scholar]
  8. Pichtel, J. Distribution and Fate of Military Explosives and Propellants in Soil: A Review. Appl. Environ. Soil Sci. 2012, 2012, 617236. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [Green Version]
  9. Celin, S.M.; Sahai, S.; Kalsi, A.; Bhanot, P. Environmental monitoring approaches used during bioremediation of soils contaminated with hazardous explosive chemicals. Trends Environ. Anal. Chem. 2020, 26, e00088. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  10. Singh, H.; Singh, A. Chemical Warfare. Eur. J. Mol. Clin. Med. 2020, 7, 4762–4779. [Google Scholar]
  11. McNutt, M.; Hildebrand, J. Scientists in the line of fire. Science 2022, 375, eabp8817. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  12. Krylova-Grek, Y. Mass media as a factor influencing the concepts semantic field. Signo 2022, 47, 63–71. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  13. Yang, S.; Chen, Z.; Cheng, Y.; Liu, T.; Yin, L.; Pu, Y.; Liang, G. Environmental toxicology wars: Organ-on-a-chip for assessing the toxicity of environmental pollutants. Environ. Pollut. 2021, 268, 115861. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  14. Skalny, A.V.; Aschner, M.; Bobrovnitsky, I.P.; Chen, P.; Tsatsakis, A.; Paoliello, M.M.; Djordevic, A.B.; Tinkov, A.A. Environmental and health hazards of military metal pollution. Environ. Res. 2021, 201, 111568. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  15. Chilvers, B.; Morgan, K.; White, B. Sources and reporting of oil spills and impacts on wildlife 1970–2018. Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res. 2021, 28, 754–762. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  16. Lawrence, M.J.; Stemberger, H.L.; Zolderdo, A.J.; Struthers, D.P.; Cooke, S.J. The effects of modern war and military activities on biodiversity and the environment. Environ. Rev. 2015, 23, 443–460. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [Green Version]
  17. Al-Hamdany, M. Post-war environmental pollution as a risk factor of congenital disorders in Iraq: A study review: Post-war environmental pollution as a risk factor of congenital disorders in Iraq: A study review. Iraqi Natl. J. Med. 2020, 2, 1–12. Available online: https://www.iasj.net/iasj/article/181120 (accessed on 6 June 2022). [CrossRef]
  18. SIPRI. SIPRI Yearbook, 2021 Armaments, Disarmament and International Security; SIPRI: Stockholm, Sweden, 2021. [Google Scholar]
  19. Gruss, I.; Twardowski, J.; Nebeská, D.; Trögl, J.; Stefanovska, T.; Pidlisnyuk, V.; Machová, I. Microarthropods and vegetation as biological indicators of soil quality studied in poor sandy sites at former military facilities. Land Degrad. Dev. 2022, 33, 358–367. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  20. Marcuson, W., III. Soil Mechanics and US National Defense—A Mutually Beneficial Relationship. J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng. 2000, 126, 767–774. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  21. Prem, M.; Saavedra, S.; Vargas, J.F. End-of-conflict deforestation: Evidence from Colombia’s peace agreement. World Dev. 2020, 129, 104852. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  22. Oatsvall, N.S. Trees versus lives: Reckoning military success and the ecological effects of chemical defoliation during the Vietnam war. Environ. Hist. 2013, 19, 427–458. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  23. Chamen, W.T.; Moxey, A.P.; Towers, W.; Balana, B.; Hallett, P.D. Mitigating arable soil compaction: A review and analysis of available cost and benefit data. Soil Tillage Res. 2015, 146, 10–25. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  24. Gil, M.; Wróbel, K.; Montewka, J.; Goerlandt, F. A bibliometric analysis and systematic review of shipboard Decision Support Systems for accident prevention. Saf. Sci. 2020, 128, 104717. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  25. Donthu, N.; Kumar, S.; Mukherjee, D.; Pandey, N.; Lim, W.M. How to conduct a bibliometric analysis: An overview and guidelines. J. Bus. Res. 2021, 133, 285–296. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  26. Gusenbauer, M. Google Scholar to overshadow them all? Comparing the sizes of 12 academic search engines and bibliographic databases. Scientometrics 2019, 118, 177–214. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [Green Version]
  27. Aguillo, I.F. Is Google Scholar useful for bibliometrics? A webometric analysis. Scientometrics 2012, 91, 343–351. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  28. Rovira, C.; Codina, L.; Guerrero-Solé, F.; Lopezosa, C. Ranking by relevance and citation counts, a comparative study: Google Scholar, Microsoft Academic, WoS and Scopus. Future Internet 2019, 11, 202. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [Green Version]
  29. Baas, J.; Schotten, M.; Plume, A.; Côté, G.; Karimi, R. Scopus as a curated, high-quality bibliometric data source for academic research in quantitative science studies. Quant. Sci. Stud. 2020, 1, 377–386. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  30. Liu, W. Accuracy of funding information in Scopus: A comparative case study. Scientometrics 2020, 124, 803–811. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  31. Visser, M.; van Eck, N.J.; Waltman, L. Large-scale comparison of bibliographic data sources: Scopus, Web of Science, Dimensions, Crossref, and Microsoft Academic. Quant. Sci. Stud. 2021, 2, 20–41. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  32. Mongeon, P.; Paul-Hus, A. The journal coverage of Web of Science and Scopus: A comparative analysis. Scientometrics 2016, 106, 213–228. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  33. Soosaraei, M.; Khasseh, A.A.; Fakhar, M.; Hezarjaribi, H.Z. A decade bibliometric analysis of global research on leishmaniasis in Web of Science database. Ann. Med. Surg. 2018, 26, 30–37. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  34. López Belmonte, J.; Moreno-Guerrero, A.-J.; López Núñez, J.A.; Pozo Sánchez, S. Analysis of the Productive, Structural, and Dynamic Development of Augmented Reality in Higher Education Research on the Web of Science. Appl. Sci. 2019, 9, 5306. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [Green Version]
  35. Guler, A.T.; Waaijer, C.J.; Palmblad, M. Scientific workflows for bibliometrics. Scientometrics 2016, 107, 385–398. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [Green Version]
  36. Aria, M.; Cuccurullo, C. bibliometrix: An R-tool for comprehensive service mapping analysis. J. Informetr. 2017, 11, 959–975. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  37. Shannon, P.; Markiel, A.; Ozier, O.; Baliga, N.S.; Wang, J.T.; Ramage, D.; Amin, N.; Schwikowski, B.; Ideker, T. Cytoscape: A software environment for integrated models of biomolecular interaction networks. Genome Res. 2003, 13, 2498–2504. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  38. Van Eck, N.J.; Waltman, L. CitNetExplorer: A new software tool for analyzing and visualizing citation networks. J. Informetr. 2014, 8, 802–823. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [Green Version]
  39. Van Eck, N.; Waltman, L. Software survey: VOSviewer, a computer program for bibliometric mapping. Scientometrics 2010, 84, 523–538. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [Green Version]
  40. Ignatavičius, G. Environmental Risk Prevention and Environment Management in Lithuanian Military Lands. In Comparative Risk Assessment and Environmental Decision Making; Springer Science & Business Media: Berlin/Heidelberg, Germany, 2004; pp. 403–412. [Google Scholar]
  41. Ellwanger, G.; Reiter, K. Nature conservation on decommissioned military training areas—German approaches and experiences. J. Nat. Conserv. 2019, 49, 1–8. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  42. Khordagui, H.; Al-Ajmi, D. Environmental impact of the Gulf War: An integrated preliminary assessment. Environ. Manag. 1993, 17, 557–562. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  43. Bonds, E. Legitimating the environmental injustices of war: Toxic exposures and media silence in Iraq and Afghanistan. Environ. Politics 2016, 25, 395–413. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  44. Izsak, K.; Radošević, S. EU research and innovation policies as factors of convergence or divergence after the crisis. Sci. Public Policy 2017, 44, 274–283. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  45. Pryor, J. Highlights of recent epistemology. Br. J. Philos. Sci. 2001, 52, 95–124. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [Green Version]
  46. Doran, P.M. Application of plant tissue cultures in phytoremediation research: Incentives and limitations. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2009, 103, 60–76. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  47. Chaudhry, Q.; Schröder, P.; Werck-Reichhart, D.; Grajek, W.; Marecik, R. Prospects and limitations of phytoremediation for the removal of persistent pesticides in the environment. Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res. 2002, 9, 4–17. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  48. Purnhagen, K.; Wesseler, J. EU regulation of new plant breeding technologies and their possible economic implications for the EU and beyond. Appl. Econ. Perspect. Policy 2021, 43, 1621–1637. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  49. Cobo, M.; López-Herrera, A.G.; Herrera-Viedma, E.; Herrera, F. SciMAT: A new science mapping analysis software tool. J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci. Technol. 2012, 63, 1609–1630. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  50. Wessely, S. Ten years on: What do we know about the Gulf War syndrome? King’s College Gulf War Research Unit. Clin. Med. 2001, 1, 28–37. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  51. Bjørklund, G.; Pivina, L.; Dadar, M.; Semenova, Y.; Rahman, M.M.; Chirumbolo, S.; Aaseth, J. Depleted uranium and Gulf War Illness: Updates and comments on possible mechanisms behind the syndrome. Environ. Res. 2020, 181, 108927. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  52. Ribeiro, A.C.R.; Deshpande, L.S. A review of pre-clinical models for Gulf War Illness. Pharmacol. Ther. 2021, 228, 107936. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  53. Duraković, A. On depleted uranium: Gulf war and Balkan syndrome. Croat. Med. J. 2001, 42, 130–134. [Google Scholar]
  54. Woźniak, E.; Tyczewska, A.; Twardowski, T. Bioeconomy development factors in the European Union and Poland. New Biotechnol. 2021, 60, 2–8. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
Sustainability 14 07138 g001 550
Figure 1. Total global military expenditure. Source: Own calculations based on SIPRI data [18].
Figure 1. Total global military expenditure. Source: Own calculations based on SIPRI data [18].
Sustainability 14 07138 g001
Sustainability 14 07138 g002 550
Figure 2. Number of publications on military-caused soil pollution.
Figure 2. Number of publications on military-caused soil pollution.
Sustainability 14 07138 g002
Sustainability 14 07138 g003 550
Figure 3. Relationship between military expenditure and number of articles on military-caused soil pollution (due to differences in orders of magnitude, the figure does not contain data on US and People’s Republic of China).
Figure 3. Relationship between military expenditure and number of articles on military-caused soil pollution (due to differences in orders of magnitude, the figure does not contain data on US and People’s Republic of China).
Sustainability 14 07138 g003
Sustainability 14 07138 g004 550
Figure 4. International cooperation between different countries measured on the basis of co-authorship between 1985 and 2005. The thickness of edge lines is approximately proportional with the number of co-authored publications. The countries are indicated by their three-digit ISO code.
Figure 4. International cooperation between different countries measured on the basis of co-authorship between 1985 and 2005. The thickness of edge lines is approximately proportional with the number of co-authored publications. The countries are indicated by their three-digit ISO code.
Sustainability 14 07138 g004
Sustainability 14 07138 g005 550
Figure 5. International cooperation between different countries measured on the basis of co-authorship between 2006 and 2015. The thickness of edge lines is approximately proportional to the number of co-authored publications. The countries are indicated by their three-digit ISO code.
Figure 5. International cooperation between different countries measured on the basis of co-authorship between 2006 and 2015. The thickness of edge lines is approximately proportional to the number of co-authored publications. The countries are indicated by their three-digit ISO code.
Sustainability 14 07138 g005
Sustainability 14 07138 g006 550
Figure 6. International cooperation between different countries measured on the basis of co-authorship between 2016 and 2022. The thickness of edge lines is approximately proportional to the number of co-authored publications. The countries are indicated by their three-digit ISO code.
Figure 6. International cooperation between different countries measured on the basis of co-authorship between 2016 and 2022. The thickness of edge lines is approximately proportional to the number of co-authored publications. The countries are indicated by their three-digit ISO code.
Sustainability 14 07138 g006
Sustainability 14 07138 g007 550
Figure 7. The structure of the publications based on their epistemological background.
Figure 7. The structure of the publications based on their epistemological background.
Sustainability 14 07138 g007
Sustainability 14 07138 g008 550
Figure 8. The results of cluster analysis of basic directions of research.
Figure 8. The results of cluster analysis of basic directions of research.
Sustainability 14 07138 g008
Sustainability 14 07138 g009 550
Figure 9. Mapping of basic themes in the early phase of ‘military activity’—‘soil pollution’ research.
Figure 9. Mapping of basic themes in the early phase of ‘military activity’—‘soil pollution’ research.
Sustainability 14 07138 g009
Sustainability 14 07138 g010 550
Figure 10. Mapping of basic themes in ‘military activity’—‘soil pollution’ research in period 2005–2016.
Figure 10. Mapping of basic themes in ‘military activity’—‘soil pollution’ research in period 2005–2016.
Sustainability 14 07138 g010
Sustainability 14 07138 g011 550
Figure 11. Mapping of basic themes in ‘military activity’—‘soil pollution’ research in period 2005–2016.
Figure 11. Mapping of basic themes in ‘military activity’—‘soil pollution’ research in period 2005–2016.
Sustainability 14 07138 g011
Sustainability 14 07138 g012 550
Figure 12. Factors influencing the military-caused soil pollution. The optimal synergy is outlined by A-B-C-D polygon.
Figure 12. Factors influencing the military-caused soil pollution. The optimal synergy is outlined by A-B-C-D polygon.
Sustainability 14 07138 g012
Table
Table 1. The consequences of military operations on the soil.
Table 1. The consequences of military operations on the soil.
Military ActivityConsequence on the SoilReference
Building military-related infrastructure (e.g., barracks, camps, ranges)Environmental burden and soil pollution, not deferring necessarily from environmental consequences of other “civic” activities, but located in environmentally sensitive areasAshley and Touchton, 2016 [3]
Erection of military-related objects for offensive or defensive maneuvers or drillsModification of physical and hydrological characteristics of the soilKiersch, 1998 [4]
Military vehicle trafficChanges in mechanical structure of the soilAnderson et al., 2005 [5]
Soil contamination as a consequence of military vehicles and flying objectsContamination caused by oil and lubricantsKastánek and Demnerová, 1995 [6]
Application of landminesSoil contamination with heavy metal and plasticGarbino, 2019 [7]
Application of explosives in military activityModification of physical and hydrological characteristics of the soilContamination caused by heavy metals in shells and bombsPichtel, 2012 [8]
Contamination caused by ergodic componentsCelin et al., 2020 [9]
Consequences of application of weapons of mass destructionChemical, radioactive, and microbial contaminationSingh and Singh, 2020 [10]
Table
Table 2. Production of relevant articles by nationality of the corresponding author.
Table 2. Production of relevant articles by nationality of the corresponding author.
CountryNumber of ArticlesThe Relative Share of Publications (%)
USA148042.5
China2858.2
United Kingdom1624.6
France1444.1
Germany1293.7
Canada1193.4
South Korea982.8
Australia631.8
Italy631.8
Czech Republic561.6
Iran411.2
Russia391.1
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Stadler, T.; Temesi, Á.; Lakner, Z. Soil Chemical Pollution and Military Actions: A Bibliometric Analysis. Sustainability 2022, 14, 7138. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14127138

AMA Style

Stadler T, Temesi Á, Lakner Z. Soil Chemical Pollution and Military Actions: A Bibliometric Analysis. Sustainability. 2022; 14(12):7138. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14127138

Chicago/Turabian Style

Stadler, Tamás, Ágoston Temesi, and Zoltán Lakner. 2022. "Soil Chemical Pollution and Military Actions: A Bibliometric Analysis" Sustainability 14, no. 12: 7138. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14127138

Note that from the first issue of 2016, this journal uses article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

Article Metrics

Back to TopTop