Mapping of urban environmentally sensitive areas in Bratislava city

Spatial variability of soil temperature in an urban area: A case study for a medium-sized European city

“…This approach must respect the specifics of urban landscape and a substantial variability of soils in urban areas, where pedogenesis and the resulting spatial variability of soils is largely interconnected with human activity. For further analyses of temperature and thermal regimes of soils in urban environment in the con-text of their applicability, the concept of pedo-urban complexes or urban pedotope (Sobocká, 2010;Sobocká et al, 2020) seems applicable and it may be to a large extent compatible with the concept of local climate zones (Stewart & Oke, 2012), a concept well established in the study of urban climate.…”

“…In the studies of urban climate, emphasis is given to the characteristics of anthropogenic surfac-es and their accurate parametrisation (Mohajerani et al, 2017). Soils represent a considerable part of active surface in urban areas (Kopp & Raška, 2017); however, their characteristics are strongly generalized (Sievers et al, 1983;Bokwa et al, 2019;Feranec et al, 2019;Resler et al, 2020) considering the range of factors influencing temperature and thermal regimes of soils (Lehnert, 2014) and the general variability of soils in urban areas (Milošević et al 2014;Sobocká et al, 2020). This leads to significant inaccuracies in the presumed radiative balance of active surface, and to differences between simulated and observed/real heat fluxes (Christen and Vogt, 2004).…”

Land recycling, food security and Technosols

“…Added to consequences previously stated related to land take, soil sealing upsets environmental balance, because soil ecosystem is isolated from others. Impervious soil not only implies a reduction in capacity to provide ecosystem services, but also supposes provision of negative services (disservices) such as intensification of the urban heat island effect, increase risk of flooding, reduce filtering water that drains into aquifers and evapotranspiration, and adversely affect biodiversity and carbon cycle [3,10,[16][17][18][19] . Consequently, Sobocká et al (2021) [18] concludes that urban centers are the "most environmentally sensitive area" due to high rates of soil sealing (more than 80%) and urban heat island effects, and lack of green areas.…”

“…Some constraints in the allocation of intended use are size of brownfields (areas between 1 and 20 hectares are suitable for green spaces) [22] , soil state (contamination, fertility, among others) [23,31] , and previous use mainly related to whether it has been sealed or not. Possibly this is due to the fact that brownfields of heavy industries show high rates of contaminated soils, so to avoid high costs of remediation, they are usually destined for secondary development [18] . Therefore, in the decision of the new use, economic criteria have priority over environmental or social ones [22,32] .…”

“…Sobocká et al (2021) [18] consider brownfields that have hosted highly polluting activities should not be reclaimed for residential development or housing the most sensitive population, nor for green parks, without proceeding to cover contaminated soil with a layer of topsoil (at least 50 cm). As indicate by Pecina et al (2021) [31] , for agricultural use it would also be advisable to be cautious [37] .…”