Resource information
Urban soils are defined as soils which are severely influenced by various human activities, but not only by cultivation. These soils have assumed particular significance because they extend over large areas, are intensively used and are increasingly relevant in the consideration of land-use patterns. However, urban soils can bring about both considerable benefits and extreme risk for urban living. Therefore, an effective way of handling taxonomy for urban soils must be taken into account in spatial planning. The taxonomy of urban soils must take into consideration the fact that urban soils are mostly young soils, normally showing only weak signs of soil genesis. In contrast herein urban soils are often characterized by easily differentiable substrate-linked features. Since the early stages of soil genesis are mainly influenced by substrate properties, reasonable taxonomic differentiation of urban soils can be obtained by restricting consideration to substrate-linked properties. Proposals which were first presented during a session on Anthropogenic soils classification at the 2nd International Conference on Soil Classification in July 2005, in Petrozavodsk (Russia) are reflected here.
