Soils within Cities

Global approaches to their sustainable management - composition, properties, and functions of soils of the urban environment

Edited by Maxine J. Levin; Kye-Hoon John Kim; Jean Louis Morel; Wolfgang Burghardt; Przemyslaw Charzynski; Richard K. Shaw

2017. 253 pages, 113 figures, 23 tables, 17x24cm,

ISBN 978-3-510-65411-6, paperback, price: 29.90 €

can be ordered here

Urban Soils

Edited by Rattan Lal, B. A. Stewart

CRC Press 2017,

406 Pages - 55 B/W Illustrations

ISBN 9781498770095 - CAT# K29336

Series: Advances in Soil Science

Urban Expansion, Land Cover and Soil Ecosystem Services

Edited by Ciro Gardi

© 2017 – Routledge

302 pages | 80 Color Illus. | 128 B/W Illus.

can be ordered here

Anthropogenic Soils

Author: Howard, Jeffrey

© 2017 – Springer

Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-54330-7

Number of Pages: XIII, 231

Number of Illustrations and Tables: 28 b/w illustrations, 38 illustrations in colour

can be ordered here

Technogenic Soils of Poland

Edited by

P. Charzyński, P. Hulisz, R. Bednarek

2013

and

Technogenic Soils Atlas

Edited by

P. Charzyński, M. Markiewicz, M. Świtoniak

2013

Books can be downloaded by clicking on their covers.

As the proportion of people living in urban areas has been and still is increasing, Soils within Cities undertakes to shed light on the role and importance of soils in cities, and stresses the need to consider and manage this unique component of the urban ecosystem on our way to build sustainable cities.

Thirty-four contributions comprehensively highlight key aspects and characteristics of soils of the urban ecosystem and the problems and challenges associated with them.

The authors lay out the fundamentals of soil science applied to anthropized environments, including composition, properties, and functions of soils of the urban environment, their pedogenic evolution, classification and mapping.

Furthermore, contributions present examples of actual urban soil surveys conducted in the US, Poland, Germany and Russia.

Soils within Cities is aimed at expanding our view of soils of our planet, and having them taken into consideration for human well-being. It provides city planners and managers with a special reference that can serve to offer citizens a better life in the long run.

Urban soils are composed of geological material that has been drastically disturbed by anthropogenic activities and compromised their role in the production of food, aesthetics of residential areas, and pollutant dynamics. Properties of urban soils are normally not favorable to plant growth—the soils are contaminated by heavy metals and are compacted and sealed. Therefore, the quality of urban soils must be restored to make use of this valuable resource for delivery of essential ecosystem services

Part of the Advances in Soil Sciences Series, Urban Soils explains properties of urban soils; assesses the effects of urbanization on the cycling of carbon, nitrogen, and water and the impacts of management of urban soils, soil restoration, urban agriculture, and food security; evaluates ecosystem services provisioned by urban soils, and describes synthetic and artificial soils.

This book presents a review of current knowledge of the extension and projected expansion of urban areas at a global scale.

Focusing on the impact of the process of 'land take' on soil resources and the ecosystem services that they provide, it describes approaches and methodologies for detecting and measuring urban areas, based mainly on remote sensing, together with a review of models and projected data on urban expansion. The most innovative aspect includes an analysis of the drivers and especially the impacts of soil sealing and land take on ecosystem services, including agriculture and food security, biodiversity, hydrology, climate and landscape.

Case studies of cities from Europe, China and Latin America are included. The aim is not only to present and analyse this important environmental challenge, but also to propose and discuss solutions for the limitation, mitigation and compensation of this process.

This book is a state-of-the-art review of the physical, chemical and mineralogical properties of anthropogenic soils, their genesis morphology and classification, geocultural setting, and strategies for reclamation, revitalization, use and management.