Technogenic Soils Atlas

Abstract

Technological development and rapid growth of the human population in the world increasingly a§ect the transformation of the natural environment. One of the main ecosystem components, which undergoes irreversible changes is the soil cover in urban and industrial areas. The extent and type of changes in the soil depend on many factors: duration, intensity and the land use, properties of primary soils or reclamation techniques. Urban or industrial soils are dominated or strongly a§ected by human-made material and exhibit a high spatial heterogeneity. Their properties and pedogenesis are mainly related to technical origin. These soils are more likely to be contaminated than soils from other groups. Even when the environment of urban or industrial areas is essentially changed, the technically transformed soils can still fulfill the same ecological functions as natural soils. Advancing our knowledge about these soils is essential for spatial planning, optimal use of resources and can bring considerable benefits resulting in the improvement of life quality in the cities. This book provides an extensive database on urban and industrial soils from the following countries: Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. The main objective of this study was to present a great diversity of transformations in the investigated soils. Most of the presented examples meet the criteria of Technosols – one of the Reference Soil Groups in the WRB classification system. The above-mentioned RSG includes only pedons with a very high degree of technogenic disturbances. For this reason, a broader term is proposed − ’technogenic soils‘ − to describe all urban and industrial soils. The collected data will allow greater understanding of processes taking place in human-made ecosystems and will be a useful tool in soil-science teaching.