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Technosols and other proposals on urban soils for the WRB [World Reference Base for Soil Resources]

2006; De Gruyter Open; Volume: 20; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

2300-8725

Andreas Lehmann,

Integrated Water Resources Management

Urban soils are defined as soils which are severely influenced by various human activities, but not only by cultivation. These soils have assumed particular significance because they extend over large areas, are intensively used and are increasingly relevant in the consideration of land-use patterns. However, urban soils can bring about both considerable benefits and extreme risk for urban living. Therefore, an effective way of handling taxonomy for urban soils must be taken into account in spatial planning. The taxonomy of urban soils must take into consideration the fact that urban soils are mostly young soils, normally showing only weak signs of soil genesis. In contrast herein urban soils are often characterized by easily differentiable substrate-linked features. Since the early stages of soil genesis are mainly influenced by substrate properties, reasonable taxonomic differentiation of urban soils can be obtained by restricting consideration to substrate- linked properties. Proposals which were first presented during a ses- sion on Anthropogenic soils classifica- tion at the 2nd International Conference on Soil Classification in July 2005, in Petrozavodsk SIGNIFICANCE OF URBAN SOILS Urban soils make significant contributions to the quality of life in urban areas. In fact there are no other soils used with such an intensity in terms of the number of users per unit of area as urban soils. Urban soils are also an object of great interest because in the predictable future it is anticipated that the size of urban areas will continue to increase (UN, 1995). Furthermore, urban soils perform a number of beneficial functions. The benefits of urban soils are similar to these of natural soils, but a high number of humans are affected by these profits. This applies in a specific way in fragile urban environments rather than in more natural rural areas. The meaning of each beneficial function can differ substantially between different cities and between different parts of the world. The beneficial functions of urban soils can be divided into four groups namely: hazard prevention, provision of renewable sources of water and food, contributions to urban infrastructure and to environmental quality and cultural heritage. Hazard prevention: - protection against rainstorm damage and flooding events