SUITMA 4 - Nanjing, China
The 4th International Conference on Urban Soils - Soils of Urban, Industrial, Traffic, Mining and Military Areas (US/SUITMA) was held in Nanjing, People Republic of China, during October 18 - 27, 2007, in the Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The Chair of the organizing committee was Prof. Gan-Lin Zhang.
More than 120 participants from 19 countries attended the conference. The presentations session consisted of three major groups of topics:
Part 1: Methodologies, including:
i) Soil survey, description, terminology standardization and sampling in urban areas;
ii) Laboratory methods for urban soils;
iii) Soil classification and mapping in urban areas;
Part 2: Impacts of urbanization on soil resources, including:
i) Land use change under urbanization;
ii) Pedogenesis and quality changes of urban soils;
iii) Physical aspects of urban soil changes;
excursion to Tongling (Fot. W. Burghardt)
iv) Chemical aspects of urban soil changes;
v) Biological aspects of urban soil changes;
vi) Historical aspects of urban soil formation and characterization;
Part 3: Urban soils in relation to urban ecosystem, including:
i) Ecological impact of urbanization in regional and global scales;
ii) Urban soils and greenery plants;
iii) Urban soils in relation to water environment;
iv) Biogeochemical cycling of life-dependent materials in urban ecosystem;
v) Pollution status and control of urban soils;
vi) Remediation of contaminated SUITMA;
vii) Ecological assessment of urban soil quality;
Fot. W. Burghardt
viii) Ecology-based urban land use planning.
There were totally 43 oral and 85 poster presentations.
Pre- and post-conference tours were organized. The pre-conference tour was devoted to major urban soils (including sub-urban areas as well) in Nanjing. The 2-day post-conference tour was arranged in an ancient copper mining city – Tongling of Anhui Province where copper tailings and rehabilitation of mining areas were investigated.
Also the election of the new chair persons was conducted. Prof. Jean-Louis Morel from University of Lorraine, France was elected as Chair of SUITMA WG and Prof. Gan-Lin Zhang from Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences was elected as the Vice Chair.
More about SUITMA 5 here:
Burghardt, W. (2008) 4th International Conference on Urban Soils - Soils of Urban, Industrial, Traffic, Mining and Military Areas, Nanjing, China (US/SUITMA). St. Nortcliff, A.E. Hartemink (Editors): IUSS Bulletin 112, 2008: 36-38. ISSN: 0374-0447.