Urban soil's functions: Monitoring, assessment, and management

Abstract

Urbanization is a key trend of current land-use change, responsible for large environmental changes worldwide. Sustainable functioning of urban ecosystems is a priority goal of today and nearest future. Urban soil is a key component of urban ecosystems. Urban soils are formed and exist under predominant direct and indirect effect of anthropogenic factor. Urbanization was traditionally related to negative impacts on soils, whereas the capacity of urban soils to perform environmental functions is poorly understood. Traditional approaches to assess and standardize soil quality through static parameters and health thresholds give limited information on soil living phase and its dynamics. Quantifying urban soils' functions directly relates soil quality to the role of soil for environment and society, that is especially relevant in urban ecosystems. This chapter aims to overview existing approaches to monitor and assess soil functions for a specific case of urban soils. Individual functions (i.e., gas exchange and carbon sequestration, bioresources, remediation, etc.) are observed over variety of bioclimatic conditions and for different levels of anthropogenic disturbance. Assessment results are further implemented to develop guidelines and best management practices to construct and treat urban soils for maintaining their functions and quality.