Revealing urban soil properties and their spatial patterns to optimize urban soil management

Today more than half of the world’s population is living in urbanized areas. Traditionally focusing on agricultural and natural soils, the soil research community only recently acknowledged the critical role of urban soils as provisioner of ecosystem services by means of supporting plant growth, regulating the bioavailability of pollutants, their role in the hydrological cycle, carbon storage, air and water filtration and conserving soil biodiversity. An improved understanding of the role of soils in the urban environment, the spatial patterns of their chemical, biological and physical soil properties and the impacts of urbanization across the urban landscape is essential to the sustainable management of the urban soil resource. A review is given on current state of knowledge on urban soils and soil properties and the impacts of urbanization. Mapping soil properties in urban areas remains a challenge, as spatial heterogeneity is an unambiguous feature of urban soils. Physical disturbance, incorporation of anthropogenic materials, site history as well as land use and cover and their particular management practices all contribute to the mosaic of soil patches observed in the urban landscape. Understanding how these impacts of urbanization influence soil properties should be a key challenge to soil scientists, as lack of knowledge on the current status of our urban soils complicates efforts towards more sustainable urban soil management. We will demonstrate how soil scientists can play a key role in urban planning and management of urban soils, as to safeguard the many critical ecosystem functions they can provide.Today more than half of the world’s population is living in urbanized areas. Traditionally focusing on agricultural and natural soils, the soil research community only recently acknowledged the critical role of urban soils as provisioner of ecosystem services by means of supporting plant growth, regulating the bioavailability of pollutants, their role in the hydrological cycle, carbon storage, air and water filtration and conserving soil biodiversity. An improved understanding of the role of soils in the urban environment, the spatial patterns of their chemical, biological and physical soil properties and the impacts of urbanization across the urban landscape is essential to the sustainable management of the urban soil resource. A review is given on current state of knowledge on urban soils and soil properties and the impacts of urbanization. Mapping soil properties in urban areas remains a challenge, as spatial heterogeneity is an unambiguous feature of urban soils. Physical disturbance, incorporation of anthropogenic materials, site history as well as land use and cover and their particular management practices all contribute to the mosaic of soil patches observed in the urban landscape. Understanding how these impacts of urbanization influence soil properties should be a key challenge to soil scientists, as lack of knowledge on the current status of our urban soils complicates efforts towards more sustainable urban soil management. We will demonstrate how soil scientists can play a key role in urban planning and management of urban soils, as to safeguard the many critical ecosystem functions they can provide.C