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, controlling 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. 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. This research aims to understand and predict the spatial heterogeneity in urban soil properties from more readily available spatial datasets. An extensive georeferenced soil dataset (pH, OC, clay, pollutants), as well as various spatial datasets on land cover and land use were collected for the city of Ghent, Belgium. Preliminary results on spatial patterns in urban soil properties will be presented and the potential of spatial datasets as proxies to map urban soil quality (indicators) will be evaluated, with the ultimate goal to develop a practical tool for local policy makers and urban planners to evaluate and monitor urban soil quality and ecosystem services.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, controlling 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. 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. This research aims to understand and predict the spatial heterogeneity in urban soil properties from more readily available spatial datasets. An extensive georeferenced soil dataset (pH, OC, clay, pollutants), as well as various spatial datasets on land cover and land use were collected for the city of Ghent, Belgium. Preliminary results on spatial patterns in urban soil properties will be presented and the potential of spatial datasets as proxies to map urban soil quality (indicators) will be evaluated, with the ultimate goal to develop a practical tool for local policy makers and urban planners to evaluate and monitor urban soil quality and ecosystem services.C