Table Of ContentProgress in Soil Science
Andrew W. Rate Editor
Urban Soils
Principles and Practice
Progress in Soil Science
Series Editors
Alfred E Hartemink, Soil Science, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA
Alex B. McBratney, Sydney Institute of Agriculture School of Life and
Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Progress in Soil Science series publishes books that contain novel approaches in soil
science in its broadest sense – books in the series should focus on true progress in a
particular area of the soil science discipline. The scope of the series is to publish
books that enhance the understanding of the functioning and diversity of soils in all
parts of the globe. The series includes multidisciplinary approaches to soil studies
and welcomes contributions of all soil science subdisciplines. Key themes: soil
science - soil genesis, geography and classification - soil chemistry, soil physics,
soil biology, soil mineralogy - soil fertility and plant nutrition - soil and water
conservation - pedometrics - digital soil mapping - proximal soil sensing - soils and
land use change - global soil change - natural resources and the environment.Submit
a proposal : Proposals for the series will be considered by the Series Editors. An
initial author/editor questionnaire and instructions for authors can be obtained from
the Publisher, Dr. Robert K. Doe ([email protected]).
More information about this series at https://link.springer.com/bookseries/8746
Andrew W. Rate
Editor
Urban Soils
Principles and Practice
Editor
Andrew W. Rate
School of Agriculture and Environment
University of Western Australia
Crawley, WA, Australia
ISSN 2352-4774 ISSN 2352-4782 (electronic)
Progress in Soil Science
ISBN 978-3-030-87315-8 ISBN 978-3-030-87316-5 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87316-5
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
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Preface
This book was rewarding, and even fun, to write, and started a learning experience
for me that I hope will be similarly rewarding for students interested in urban soils
everywhere, especially the ones who I teach! A large proportion of the book was
written during a 6-month sabbatical leave which was generously approved by the
School of Agriculture and Environment at The University of Western Australia.
Much of the remainder was written during the COVID-19 pandemic, while at the
same time teaching undergraduate and postgraduate courses which informed my
writing (and vice versa).
My background and passion is in chemistry, and so as the main author, the
emphasis of the book reflects my chemistry bias; my other bias is towards environ-
mental science as a broader discipline. As readers will notice, however, my passion
for both subjects took me to new and interesting places in the field of environmental
science, and soil science in particular. Writing this book also made it necessary to
learn some new and interesting ways to look at environmental data, and to write the
necessary code in R. Interested readers should contact me by email for the R code
to conduct the data analyses or prepare many of the graphics and maps in this book.
Notes
Words or phrases in italics are the first instances of terms in the Glossary, except
terms that are traditionally written in italic font such as Latin phrases. International
conventions have been used where appropriate, for example soil classification, soil
texture categories, SI units, and IUPAC chemical names. This may clash sometimes
with the use of standard Australian English (e.g. in the spelling of ‘sulfur’).
We have endeavoured to make referencing formal and complete; this is not
always the case in textbooks, but we think it’s good to set an example of what we
expect from our students. As far as possible we have tried to cite literature that spe-
cifically deals with urban environments and soils, rather than the environmental
science or soil science literature in general. As a result, the sources cited may not be
v
vi Preface
the most seminal publications on any particular topic, but may be more useful for
readers wishing to learn more about urban soils.
We have used examples from as many places in the world as possible, with the
hope that this will increase our readers’ connectedness to the material. Where rele-
vant, coordinates are provided for geographic locations in decimal degrees (by con-
vention, degrees south or west are negative), suitable for searching using software
such as Google Earth or equivalent.
Perth, Western Australia Andrew W. Rate
June 2021
Photo Credits for Opening Images of Each
Chapter
Chapter 1: François Molle (CC-BY-2.0).
Chapter 2: (composite image) left, Augusto Malta (Public Domain); right,
Andrew W. Rate.
Chapter 3: (composite image) left, Lav Ulv (public domain); right, Anna Paltseva
and Zhongqi Cheng (CC-BY-4.0).
Chapter 4: (composite image) left, Roger Thurow (public domain); right, Chika
Watanabe (CC-BY-2.0).
Chapter 5: (composite image) left, Andrew W. Rate; right, Katie Hetrick, UC Davis
Arboretum and Public Garden (CC-BY-2.0).
Chapter 6: (composite image) left, Andrew W. Rate; right, Andrew W. Rate.
Chapter 7: (composite image) left, USDA-NRCS (public domain); right,
Andrew W. Rate.
Chapter 8: (composite image) top, Franck Michel (CC-BY-2.0); bottom left, Steve
K. (CC-BY-2.0); bottom centre, Chika Watanabe (CC-BY-2.0); bottom right,
Armen Phelps (CC-BY-4.0).
Chapter 9: (composite image) left, https://pxhere.com/en/photo/986452 (Public
Domain); right, Sergio Souza (CC-BY-4.0).
Chapter 10: (composite image) top, UNEP (Public Domain); left, Laura Kraft
(Public Domain); right, Ja Ma (Public Domain).
Chapter 11: (composite image) both images by Marco Verch (CC-BY-2.0).
Chapter 12: (composite image) left, Romon Logov (public domain); centre, Willian-
Justen- De-Vasconcellos (public domain); right, Anaya Katlego (public domain).
vii
Acknowledgements
First, thanks to Dr Ian Francis who was our initial contact at Springer Nature and
who first approached Andrew about writing this book, and handled the review of the
textbook proposal.
We are grateful to the following people, who generously donated their time to
read and comment on drafts: Assoc. Prof. Louise Barton, Cassandra Bond, Kai-
Ying Khoo, Giles Knight, Jessica Petersen-Jones, Annelies Rate, Dr Ming Wu, and
Peter Zafiropoulos.
Thanks also to the environmental science community on Twitter and other social
media who provided comments, ideas, and encouragement: Dr Rivka Fidel, Prof.
Anas Ghadouani, Dr Dylan Irvine, Dr Gavan McGrath, Joanne Moo, Dr Colby
Moorberg, Dr Bree Morgan, Assoc. Prof. Suzie Reichman, Dr Matthew Ricker, and
Jeremy Smith. Also to the many students at The University of Western Australia
who looked forward to the book coming out, and said so.
Prasad Gurunadham, the project coordinator at Springer Nature, deserves special
mention for his patience in dealing with Andrew’s occasionally impatient emails
and at the same time tolerating his frequent delays in providing material.
Finally, Andrew greatly thanks his wife and two daughters, who endured his
intense focus on, and devotion of inordinate amounts of time to, this writing project.
ix
Contents
1 Urban Ecosystems: Soils and the Rise and Fall of Cities . . . . . . . . . . 1
Andrew W. Rate
2 Formation and Properties of Urban Soils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Andrew W. Rate
3 Spatial Variability and Data Analysis in Urban Soils . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
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4 Urban Soil Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Andrew W. Rate
5 Urban Soil Physics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Andrew W. Rate
6 Inorganic Contaminants in Urban Soils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
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7 Organic Contaminants in Urban Soils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
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8 Soil Biological Processes in Urban Soils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
Deirdre Bridget Gleeson
9 Urban Soil as a Source and Sink . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
Andrew W. Rate
10 Urban Soil and Human Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
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11 Urban Soil Remediation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
Andrew W. Rate
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