City floor
The diverse soils of urban industrial spaces are summarized as city floors . Many, but not all typical city floors can be addressed as technosols (according to the WRB system ).
City floors were the floor of 2010.
description
The abiotic and biotic factors that contributed to their formation, such as: B. parent rock, relief, climate, water flow, animal and vegetable soil organisms , have been very strongly anthropogenic influenced in the city soils . This means that the city floors differ considerably from those of the surrounding area.
Various uses such as B.
- Sealing in the context of trade, industry, housing and traffic routes,
- Gardens and green spaces
or usage tasks such as fallow land and ruderal areas typically influence urban soil development. Soils in gardens and parks often show a natural structure with a humus horizon A h on the surface. In contrast, soils under streets and squares have undergone major technological changes and are usually sealed by a thick top layer. From this diversity, a mosaic of soils with partly natural development, those of relocated components and those of rubble or rubble, garbage, slag and sludge is formed in urban landscapes.
properties
Urban soils differ in many properties from natural soils and the culturally influenced soils of the surrounding area. The numerous city-specific changes make it seem sensible to speak of "city floors" in general terms. However, the soils in the city often vary greatly due to the small-scale change in (former) use. Despite this increased diversity compared to natural conditions, the characteristics of urban soils that are often encountered can be identified:
- increased sand, gravel and stone content (building material, rubble )
- increased proportions of technogenic and anthropogenic substrates (e.g. household waste, industrial waste such as slag or ash )
- increased pH values due to calcareous building rubble
- increased levels of pollutants due to atmospheric deposition and the entry of pollutant-containing solids and liquids
- less moisture due to drainage, increased distance to the groundwater level due to soil application and reduced water retention capacity due to coarser texture
- Compaction and sealing
Functions
The functions of urban floors are very diverse, but mostly not recognizable at first glance. City dwellers perceive floors most strongly in parks, gardens and green spaces, as they are still exposed here. But here soils are not only the basis for recreational activities and recreation, they also represent a basis for many animals and plants.
The urban soils in the cities and their peripheral zones, with their sometimes extreme properties, often have species-rich habitats. Due to the lack of more natural areas, they even represent retreats for rare animal and plant species. In the city, the most important function of soils is to provide building land for residential buildings, public buildings, department stores and much more. Countless supply and disposal lines run through the floors in the cities. Another important function is to be found where floors are not sealed, i.e. H. built on or asphalted. Here the rainwater can seep away and thus relieve the sewer networks and prevent flooding. With their filter effect, they help to create clean groundwater and drinking water. In addition, the urban soils, together with the plants, ensure a balanced urban climate in both summer and winter as well as fresh air by filtering out harmful fine dust and binding it permanently (“green lung”).
As witnesses to the history of the settlement, city soils have an important archival function, as generations of their residents have left their traces mainly in the soil. City floors can show building rubble that is hundreds of years old, the remains of medieval city fires or rubble from wars. Buried settlement structures, old settlement waste and ancient grave sites give settlement researchers and archaeologists conclusions about the life of our ancestors. Industry and commerce as well as mining have also left their mark on the soil. In times of unregulated waste disposal, the affected soils were so heavily polluted that their filtering and balancing functions failed. Here, cost-intensive renovation work is required that will improve the soil in the long term.
See also
literature
Individual evidence
- ^ David G. Rossiter: Classification of Urban and Industrial Soils in the World Reference Base for Soil Resources. Journal of Soils and Sediments. Vol. 7 (2), 2007, pp. 96-100
- ^ City floors - 2010
- ↑ Till Kasielke, Corinne book: Urban soils in the Ruhr. Yearbook of the Bochum Botanical Association. Vol. 3, 2012, pp. 73-102 ( PDF 6.3 MB)
- ↑ City floor profile. (No longer available online.) German Soil Science Society, archived from the original on March 9, 2013 ; Retrieved July 6, 2016 .
Black Earth (2005) | Pale Earth (2006) | Heide-Podzol (2007) | Brown Earth (2008) | Kalkmarsch (2009) | City floors (2010) | Vega (2011) | Moor (2012) | Plaggenesch (2013) | Vineyard soils (2014) | Backwater bottoms (2015) | Groundwater Soils (2016) | Garden Soils (2017) | Felshumusboden (2018) | Kippenboden (2019) | Wattboden (2020)