SOILS IN URBAN AND INDUSTRIAL ENVIRONMENTS

Urban areas are expanding rapidly. Therefore the interest in soil scie nce activities on urban and industrial sites grows. The paper gives an overview of the research and mapping activities in Germany. A model o f soils in urban ecosystems shows the relationships of development of soils and soil quality to land use. The water regime of soils is influ enced by the characteristics of urban landscape and sealing. Of specia l interest are the typical substrates. Some properties of soils which develop on tipped substrates of natural material are discussed. Of imp ortance are technological substrates as rubble, ash, slag, waste mater ial and sludges in urban environments. Proposals of classification of urban and industrial soils are presented. For proper use by the munici pal authorities availability and application of information on urban s oils must be a part of research.