In the previous section the thermal complexity of unsaturated porous media was demonstrated. In the case of municipal wastes the situation is more complicated, because in the solid phase, the waste itself is very heterogeneous and contains many organic and many inorganic components as well. There are only a few works (Gori and Corasaniti, 2013 and Alrtimi et al., 2014) dealing with this topic in the literature, and no comprehensive study exists. Soils also represent a three phase unsaturated and heterogeneous system. As a consequence, it is possible to use some of the developments of soil physics for landfill sites. It is reasonable to refer to the literature of soil thermal properties. Soil physics is a good choice from this respect, because of several reasons:
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Soils are also very heterogeneous materials.
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The temperature of soils plays a significant role in soil microbial activity and in plant growth.
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Landfills are standing on soil surface, where heat losses can be expected.