Re-thinking the Technosol design for greenery systems: Challenges for the provision of ecosystem services in semiarid and arid cities

González-Méndez, Blanca; Chávez-García, Elizabeth

doi:10.1016/j.jaridenv.2020.104191

Cited by 19 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 116 publications

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“…In accordance with the EGD (EC, 2019), authors consider GI and NBS as the best tool for remediation of contaminated urban sites (Baragaño et al, 2020 ; Li et al, 2018 ), for carbon sequestration (González-Méndez & Chávez-García, 2020 ) and for reducing flooding risk and biodiversity conservation (Demiroglu et al, 2014 ). GI is capable of regulating temperature due to soil insulating properties, as well as because soils are the substrate on which vegetation develops, generating protection against temperatures with its shade and evapotranspiration.…”

Section: Europe Green Strategymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…GI is capable of regulating temperature due to soil insulating properties, as well as because soils are the substrate on which vegetation develops, generating protection against temperatures with its shade and evapotranspiration. In Mediterranean environments, green walls can reduce around 59% of energy consumption for cooling (González-Méndez & Chávez-García, 2020 ). Berndtsson ( 2010 ) studied the crucial role that green roofs plays retaining pollutants carried during rain runoff.…”

Section: Europe Green Strategymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The increase in urban population implies ensuring the supply of necessary resources (González-Méndez & Chávez-García, 2020 ), their health and well-being, the development of productive activities, transport, among others. This translates into an intensification in the ecological footprint of cities (Zambon et al, 2019 ), due to generation of waste and emissions (Losco & Biase, 2021 ), loss of greenness and biodiversity, and soil occupation (Filho et al, 2019 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Urban areas, human health and technosols for the green deal

Rodrıguez-Espinosa

Pedreño

Gómez-Lucas

et al. 2021

Environ Geochem Health

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Authors aim to carry out a bibliographic review as an initial approach to state of the art related to the quality of urban soils, as well as its possible link with human health. This concern arises from the need to highlight the consequences that soil could face, derived from the growth and aging of the population, as well as its predicted preference for urban settlement. Urban development may pose a challenge to the health of urban soils, due to degradative processes that it entails, such as land take, sealing, contamination or compaction. A healthy soil is the one which maintains the capacity to support ecosystem services, so it can provide numerous benefits to human health and well-being (carbon sequestration, protection against flooding, retention and immobilization of pollutants and a growth media for vegetation and food production). This article addresses threats facing urban soils, the strategies put forward by the European Union to deal with them, as well as the issues that require further attention. Greening cities could be a consensual solution, so authors analyze whether soils of cities are ready for that challenge and what resources need to maintain soil ecosystem functions. This review proposes to use made by waste Technosols for a sustainable green city. Although the use of Technosols as a type of soil is very recent, the interest of the scientific community in this field continues to grow.

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Section: Europe Green Strategymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Europe Green Strategymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Urban areas, human health and technosols for the green deal

Rodrıguez-Espinosa

Pedreño

Gómez-Lucas

et al. 2021

Environ Geochem Health

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“…It has recently been suggested that efficacious selection of technosol components be based on a pedological assessment of their end-usage. Gonzalez-Mendez & Chavez-Garcia [20] point to the importance of matching function with form by selecting materials with suitable soil-substituting qualities, for example water holding in arid regions, or pollutant filtering in urban settings. This approach implies that some materials with suboptimal chemical, biological or physical characteristics may be discarded in preference to more optimal soil forming materials, which may be scarcer locally, when formulating technosol "recipes".…”

Section: Optimising the Technosol Recipementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, a clear abundance of C&D-fines and organic waste base materials exist that could be utilised to create technosols. Such substrates have been variously produced and tested previously, but generally these have consisted of waste materials blended with extant soil [10,19,20], with few studies testing technosols produced without the input of geogenic soils [11]. Therefore, there is a paucity of detailed study of technosols produced solely from wastes in terms of mineralogy, geochemistry and plant growth performance, and it was thus deemed pertinent to conduct the following study.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Geochemical and Agronomic Evaluation of Technosols Made from Construction and Demolition Fines Mixed with Green Waste Compost

et al. 2021

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Construction and demolition fines (C&D-fines) and green waste compost (GWC) are two commonly generated urban waste materials that represent repositories of geochemical value. Here technosols were produced from volumetric mixtures of these materials ranging from 0–100% C&D-fines, with the remaining proportion comprised of GWC. Agronomic assessment was carried out by way of pot and rhizobox plant growth experiments with ryegrass, barley and pea to determine germination, plant mass and rooting behaviours. Geochemical and mineralogical evaluation was achieved by soil pore water solution measurements combined with X-ray powder diffraction analyses respectively, to characterise the technosols and their distinct deviations from a reference agricultural geogenic soil (soil). The results demonstrated that germination, growth and root mass/surface area of vegetation were up to 80-fold greater after 30-days in the technosol composed of equal volumes of the two materials (50% C&D-fines: 50% GWC) compared to the soil. High concentrations of Ca and Mg in pore waters (550–800 mg·L−1) were dominant features of the technosols, in contrast to the soil (<50 mg·L−1), resulting from gypsum and calcite enrichment of the C&D-fines. In contrast, the GWC represented a source of soluble K (450–1000·mg·L−1). Highly elevated Ca concentrations in extended leaching tests of the C&D-fines reflected ongoing gypsum dissolution, whereas soluble Mg and K were rapidly depleted from the GWC. In summary, short-term performance of the technosols as plant growth substrates was strong despite their geochemical and mineralogical distinction from soil. Gleaning additional geochemical value from combining urban wastes in this way is potentially suited to myriad scenarios where geogenic soils are contaminated, sealed or otherwise absent. Further assessment will now be needed to determine the geochemical longevity of the technosols before wider scale applications can be recommended.

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