Restoring soil fertility is impossible without restoring the aquatic environment to which these soils are connected. That is why the AVELife Institute considers the cleaning of water bodies not only as an environmental measure, but as part of a broader system of restoring land, water resources, and the productive potential of territories.
In many regions of Ukraine, soil degradation is accompanied by silting of ponds, lakes, small rivers and melioration canals. Disruption of the natural movement of water, accumulation of organic sediments, overgrowing of water bodies and deterioration of water quality gradually affect the adjacent lands. Soils lose their structure, their water-air regime deteriorates, biological activity decreases, and farms are increasingly forced to compensate for this with additional costs.
AVELife offers a different approach: considering the water body, the coastal strip, and the adjacent lands as a single natural and economic system that requires comprehensive rehabilitation.
When a body of water becomes silted up, loses its depth and natural flow, it changes the hydrological regime of the entire surrounding area. Water stagnates, coastal zones lose their drainage function, and the risk of waterlogging in some areas and depletion in others increases. This gradually affects the structure of the soil, its density, moisture retention, and ability to support the active life of beneficial microflora.
Therefore, the restoration of a reservoir is not a separate ecological episode, but an important part of the restoration of land resources.
One of the key ideas of AVELife is to transform bottom sediments from a problem into a resource. Organically rich bottom masses, in particular sapropel, can contain valuable components for the soil: organic matter, humic acids, fulvic acids, mineral compounds, and natural biologically active complexes.
After technological preparation, such raw materials can be used as part of organo-mineral products and land reclamation compositions for:
In AVELife technological solutions, the combination of prepared sapropel with glauconite and other natural minerals is particularly promising. This allows creating stable organo-mineral compositions for the restoration of degraded, depleted or disturbed soils.
The practical AVELife model involves phased implementation.
At the initial stage, an analysis of the reservoir, its hydrological state, the degree of siltation, sources of organic load, as well as an assessment of the condition of adjacent soils is carried out. This makes it possible to determine the real scale of the problem and prepare a substantiated technical solution.
The next stage involves removing silt and organic layers that disrupt the natural functioning of the reservoir. If necessary, this process is accompanied by biological water treatment methods, including the use of solutions to curb excessive blue-green algae growth and reduce organic load.
At the same time, a natural barrier is formed to prevent re-pollution of the reservoir. For this, biofiltration elements are used: beneficial microflora, coastal vegetation, natural phyto-ameliorative solutions. Such zones reduce the discharge of nutrients into the water, stabilize the banks, and maintain ecological balance.
The extracted sediments are prepared for further economic use. Depending on their characteristics, this may include dehydration, stabilization, biological treatment, enrichment with mineral components, and adaptation for use in organo-mineral technologies.
Once prepared, the resulting mass can be used to rehabilitate disturbed lands, improve soil structure, increase organic matter content, and maintain long-term fertility. This creates a closed, resource-efficient cycle in which the products of water body purification work to restore the lands.
For communities and local governments, this approach opens up the opportunity to solve several tasks within one integrated project.
It’s not just about cleaning the reservoir, but also about:
For many communities, it is also a way to implement a practical circular economy, where local natural problems are solved while simultaneously creating a useful product for the territory.
For farms and agribusinesses, the AVELife solution is relevant where production depends on the condition of nearby water bodies, land reclamation systems, moisture supply, and the overall stability of the soil environment.
Restoring the water regime of the territory and using organo-mineral compositions based on processed bottom sediments contributes to:
In the long term, this could reduce farms’ dependence on exclusively short-term fertility support schemes and promote a transition to more sustainable agricultural production models.
Water purification also has direct practical benefits for aquaculture projects. Improving water quality, reducing excess organic load, and improving oxygen levels create more stable conditions for growing fish and other aquatic organisms.
Thus, a reservoir can simultaneously perform environmental, production, recreational, and resource functions.
Traditionally, water purification, soil restoration, and landscaping are implemented as separate areas. AVELife proposes to integrate them into a single model, where each element reinforces the other.
This is the key advantage of the approach:
The AVELife Institute is developing a direction in which bioremediation of water bodies is combined with soil regeneration, the use of natural minerals, organo-mineral compositions, and practices for the restoration of degraded areas. We consider water and land as interconnected resources, and working with them as the basis for environmentally responsible and economically viable development.
This approach is promising for:
Regeneration of soil fertility through bioremediation of adjacent water bodies is not a local technical solution, but a model of systemic restoration of territories. It combines ecological recovery, economic feasibility, and the creation of new value from what was previously considered a problem.
For AVELife, this is a direction for the practical implementation of modern nature-based technologies, in which water purification, soil restoration, and resource-efficient use of local raw materials form the basis for the sustainable development of communities and agricultural production.
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