With an ever-increasing proportion of the world’s population living in cities, soil properties such as salinity, acidity, water retention, erosion and pollution are becoming more significant in urban areas. While these are known issues for agriculture and forestry, as urban development increases, it is essential to recognise the potential of soil properties to create problems for the environment as well as structural concerns for buildings and other engineering works. Understanding Soils in Urban Environments explains how urban soils develop, change and erode. It describes their physical and chemical properties with a focus on specific soil problems that cause environmental damage, such as acid sulfate soils, and also affect the integrity of engineering structural works. This fully revised second edition addresses contemporary issues, including an increase in the use of green roofs and urban green space as well as manufactured soils in a variety of urban environments. Understanding Soils in Urban Environments provides a concise introduction to all aspects of soils in urban environments and will be extremely useful to students in a wide range of disciplines, from soil science and urban forestry and horticulture, to planning, engineering, construction and land remediation, as well as to engineers, builders, landscape architects, ecologists, planners and developers.

Soil science, with its roots in both the plant sciences and geology, first carne into being as a recognizable discipline in response to questions conceming plant growth. The chemical and physical characteristics of the soil as well as landscape processes that controlled those characteristics were of great interest to agronomists, horticulturists, geographers, geomorphologists, and geologists, some of whom drifted into one another's orbit and - over the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries-brought their experiences and talents together to form the nucleus of soil science. In those early years, a perception developed that soil science was simply an agricultural and edaphological science, which indeed it was in large measure. However pervasive and stubbom that perception was, there has been from the beginning a segment of the community of soil scientists that has maintained an interest in soil science "writ large." These soil scientists, while continuing to interact with agronomists, horticulturists, and foresters, have maintained communications, collaborations, and linkages with such disciplines as geology, geomorphology, geography, land use planning, and engineering. In the second half of the twentieth century, soil science has expanded its contacts with these nonagricultural disciplines, and now finds itself addressing a much wider range of problems, questions, and issues than it did in the first half of the century. In response to a growing demand for information, nonagriculturalland uses increasingly have been the focus of soil studies and of the development of soil interpretations and other decision tools for land users.

Degradation of soils continues at a pace that will eventually create a local, regional, or even global crisis when diminished soil resources collide with increasing climate variation. It's not too late to restore our soils to a more productive state by rediscovering the value of soil management, building on our well-established and ever-expanding scientific understanding of soils. Soil management concepts have been in place since the cultivation of crops, but we need to rediscover the principles that are linked together in effective soil management. This book is unique because of its treatment of soil management based on principles—the physical, chemical, and biological processes and how together they form the foundation for soil management processes that range from tillage to nutrient management. Whether new to soil science or needing a concise reference, readers will benefit from this book's ability to integrate the science of soils with management issues and long-term conservation efforts.

This open access book synthesizes leading-edge science and management information about forest and rangeland soils of the United States. It offers ways to better understand changing conditions and their impacts on soils, and explores directions that positively affect the future of forest and rangeland soil health. This book outlines soil processes and identifies the research needed to manage forest and rangeland soils in the United States. Chapters give an overview of the state of forest and rangeland soils research in the Nation, including multi-decadal programs (chapter 1), then summarizes various human-caused and natural impacts and their effects on soil carbon, hydrology, biogeochemistry, and biological diversity (chapters 2–5). Other chapters look at the effects of changing conditions on forest soils in wetland and urban settings (chapters 6–7). Impacts include: climate change, severe wildfires, invasive species, pests and diseases, pollution, and land use change. Chapter 8 considers approaches to maintaining or regaining forest and rangeland soil health in the face of these varied impacts. Mapping, monitoring, and data sharing are discussed in chapter 9 as ways to leverage scientific and human resources to address soil health at scales from the landscape to the individual parcel (monitoring networks, data sharing Web sites, and educational soils-centered programs are tabulated in appendix B). Chapter 10 highlights opportunities for deepening our understanding of soils and for sustaining long-term ecosystem health and appendix C summarizes research needs. Nine regional summaries (appendix A) offer a more detailed look at forest and rangeland soils in the United States and its Affiliates.

Urban areas contain a wide variety of open spaces, yet much of this has evolved under the pressures of human population with minimal management. The last 40 years have seen problems of varying severity begin to appear, including contamination, erosion, acidification and compaction. These problems have brought attention to the importance of the soil cover, the need for better understanding it, and the need for its protection. This book is a review of state-of-the-art science for soil in urban areas. Based on a meeting organized by the Nature Conservancy Council and the British Society of Soil Science, the nine chapters cover soil classification, contamination by waste and metals, physical and biological properties, nutrient provision and cycling, vegetation, and soil storage. The book provides a basis from which to plan future research and development programs.