SUITMA 6 - Marrakech, Morocco

The 6th SUITMA conference was held in Marrakech, Morocco from 3-to 7 October 2011. It was co-organized by the Faculté des Sciences et Techniques of Marrakech, University Cadi Ayyad and the GISFI (http://www.gisfi.fr) from France. The Chairman of SUITMA 6 Scientific Committee was prof. AliBoularbah . More than one hundred participantsattended the conference and a total of 45 oral presentations and 48 posters were presented in 4 sessions:

session 1: SUITMA properties and diversity, contamination, and remediation;

session 2: role of SUITMAs in global change and water quality;

session 3: biodiversity in SUITMAs;

session 4: SUITMAs as buffer for human health and social stability.

Eleven selected papers were later peer reviewed and published in special issue of the Journal of Soils and Sediments (13(3), 2013), which focus on the properties, processes, evolution, and management of soils in urban and human-altered environments.

Beside a three-day conference, two days were spent on field trips in Marrakech and its vicinity to examine soils and landscapes, soil-based restoration, research, and mapping projects under semi-arid climate and to study the impacts of the mining activities on the soils. During the field tour, different profiles of urban soils of Marrakech and industrial soils from Kettara mine, were presented and their chemical, physical and biological properties were throughly discussed. A post-conference tour was organized as well. It took place in Senegal to address issues related to urban soils under tropical conditions. The 3 days tour was organized by Ndeye Fall of the Institut National de Pédologie (INP/DG) from Senegal Capital city, Dakar.

Fot. A. Boularbah, W. Burghardt, P. Charzyński