Assessment of Soil Sealing Management Responses, Strategies, and Targets Toward Ecologically Sustainable Urban Land Use Management

Abstract

Soil sealing has negative impacts on ecosystem services since urban green and soil get lost. Although there is political commitment to stop further sealing, no reversal of this trend can be observed in Europe. This paper raises the questions (1) which strategies can be regarded as being efficient toward ecologically sustainable management of urban soil sealing and (2) who has competences and should take responsibility to steer soil sealing? The analyses are conducted in Germany. The assessment of strategies is carried out using indicators as part of a content analysis. Legal-planning, informal-planning, economic-fiscal, cooperative, and informational strategies are analyzed. Results show that there is a sufficient basis of strategies to secure urban ecosystem services by protecting urban green and reducing urban gray where microclimate regulation is a main target. However, soil sealing management lacks a spatial strategically overview as well as the consideration of services provided by fertile soils.

Evaluación y medida del sellado de suelos en el Norte de Madrid (España)

“…Algunos investigadores se adentran en las consecuencias medioambientales de este sellado, especialmente en relación a los movimientos del agua y al incremento de la erosión por aumento de la escorrentía (Mualem et al, 1990;Römkens et al, autores plantean posibles estrategias para su protección (FAO, 1979;Prokop et al, 2011;Artmann, 2014).…”