Connecting existing cemeteries saving good soils (for livings)

Background: Urban sprawl consumes and degrades productive soils worldwide. Fast and safe decomposition of corpses requires high-quality functional soils, and land use which competes with both agriculture and buildings. On one hand, cremation does not require much land, but it has a high energy footprint, produces atmospheric pollution, and is unacceptable to some religious communities. On the other hand, as exhumations are not practiced, "green burials" require more surface area than current burial practices, so a new paradigm for managing land use is required. Conclusions: In this paper, we propose a concept for 'green belt communalities' (i.e., ecological corridors with multiple, yet flexible, uses and services for future generations). With the expansion of urban centers, ecological corridors gradually disappear. Cemeteries for burial plots preclude alternative uses of the land for a long time. By combining these two aspects (need for connectivity and land take imposed by cemeteries), two positive results can be achieved: protecting memories of the past and connecting ecosystems with multiple-use corridors. This new paradigm works best in flat or hilly terrain where there are already several urban agglomerations that contain traditional cemeteries. Stakeholders who might consider this concept are local administrators, planners, and the communities of individuals who share specific beliefs on burial systems

The impractical supremacy of the local identity on the worthless soils of Mappano

Introduction: Soil is under pressure worldwide. In Italy, in the last two decades, land consumption has reached an average rate of 8 m2, demonstrating the failure of urban planning in controlling these phenomena. Despite the renewed recognition of the central role of soil resources, which has triggered numerous initiatives and actions, soil resources are still seen as a second-tier priority. No governance body exists to coordinate initiatives to ensure that soils are appropriately represented in decision-making processes. Global Soil Partnership draws our attention to the need for coordination to avoid fragmentation of efforts and wastage of resources. Both at a global and at a local level, the area of fertile soils is limited and is increasingly under pressure by competing land uses for settlement, infrastructure, raw materials extraction, agriculture, and forestry. Discussion and Evaluation: Here, we show that an administrative event, such as the creation of a new small municipality, can take place without any consideration of land and soil risks. This is particularly problematic in the Italian context as recent studies demonstrate that increasing local power in land use decisions coupled with weak control by the central administration and the high fragmentation and small dimension of municipalities has boosted land consumption. The fragmentation of municipalities has been detrimental to land conservation. Case description: The case study of Mappano (in the northwestern Italian region of Piedmont on the periphery of the regional capital city of Turin) is emblematic to demonstrate the role played by the supremacy of local identity or local interests despite the acknowledged importance of the key role played by soil everywhere. The contradiction highlighted by this case raises discussion amid some crucial issues as to the role of local urban planning and the protection of soil, which cannot be fragmented or subject to local short-term visions/interests. Conclusions: In this perspective, urban planning has to address soil and land issues by introducing new rules and competences at the local level and beyond

Extraterrestrial soils

Extraterrestrial soils may be defined as any of the solid granular crustal features of planets and moon other than those soils on planet Earth. Despite four decades of space exploration, which greatly expanded our understanding of the Solar System, there is considerable debate as to the loose covers of rocky planets and moons are soils in a pedological sense. On Earth, soil form thanks to the combined action of at least five factors: parent rock, climate, topography, living organisms and time. A few other factors can concur to drive pedogenesis. However, the necessity of biota as unavoidable soil forming factor is debated. In fact, important parts of Earth, such as the hyperarid Atacama Desert of Chile and the Dry Valleys of Antarctica, host virtually life-free soils with advanced horizonation. Actually, although most people invokes the ability to support plant growth in its natural environment as condicio sine qua non for soil, a scientific definition considers soil to be any in situ weathered veneer of a planetary surface that retains information on its climatic and geochemical history. A current or past mineral weathering is hence the pivotal requisite for soil

Holocene as Anthropocene

Anthropocene seems a more reasonable name than Holocene for this combined time span, whose most characteristic trait is the human pressure on the planet. Holocene could possibly be the first stage of the Anthropocene, the one characterized by a soft and spotty human impact on Earth

Carbon stocks in peri-urban areas: a case study of remote sensing capabilities

Peri-urban areas are the extension of cities into contiguous areas, where households and farms coexist. Carbon stocks (CSs) assessment, a concept here extended to urban features, has not yet been studied in depth over peri-urban areas due to uncertainties in such CSs quantification, level of detail required about construction materials, and the high spatial variability of those stocks. Remote sensing (RS)-based techniques have been successfully utilized in urban areas for assessing phenomena such as soil sealing, sprawl patterns, and dynamics of surface imperviousness, especially focusing on land cover classification at high to medium spatial scales. Over the floodplain study area of Emilia-Romagna region (Italy), we compared mapping products derived from Landsat multiseasonal data with different CSs, in soils and impervious surfaces, such as buildings and roads. A multiscale correlation analysis and regression assessment between CSs layers and satellite products were run at different grid cell sizes (100, 250, 500, and 1000 m). Results show that RS products from processing of mid-resolution satellite data can effectively perform well enough to estimate CSs in peri-urban areas, especially at 500\u20131000 m scale. Urban Fraction Cover method, derived through weighting urban land cover classes (including dense, sparse, and industrial urban features) can represent a good proxy of the ratio of anthropogenic over natural CSs (R2 up to 0.75). Imperviousness Index (II) product scored high positive correlation with CSs over built-up areas (R2 up to 0.77), and strong negative correlation with organic carbon density in soil (R2 up to 0.73

Variazione degli stock di carbonio del suolo in seguito ai processi di abbandono dei coltivi: il caso studio dell\u2019isola di Pantelleria (TP)

The recent abandonment of marginal agricultural areas in the Mediterranean has caused an increase of the surface occupied by pre-forest and forest formations. In order to study the carbon accumulation processes on Pantelleria Island was selected a North-facing area. This area includes 5 stages of succession (sds) that compose a chronosequence (from 0 to 30 years) to understand soil C accumulation processes after abandonment. These are abandoned vineyards or caperbushes, not disturbed (grazing, fire) since agricultural abandonment, and they are situated in thermomediterranean belt and on the same parent material and consequently considered in the same ecological conditions. Samples at 1 cm, 10 cm and 40 cm depth, respectively, were taken for every sds in three different soil relief areas. Litter samples were taken too. Organic carbon content was determined for every sample. Carbon content increases from a sds to the next one. There is a duplication of C from sds0 (cultivated field) to sd1 (abandoned since few years) and from sds4 (abandoned since 16-30 years) to sds5 (abandoned since > 30 years). It seems that different types of vegetation play a key-role in soil C dynamics and there are 85 t C ha-1 in the top 40 cm of the soil after 30 years from the abandonment in the chronosequence and an annual C sequestration rate equal to 3.4 t ha-1. These results show that revegetation offers good opportunities to sequestrate CO2 from the atmosphere and, therefore, to mitigate the greenhouse effect as it is requested by international agreements

Il suolo dentro e intorno alle città

Quando una città occupa un suolo tutto cambia: cambia il funzionamento, cambiano le funzioni del suolo. Il ruolo principale diventa quello di sorreggere gli edifici e le infrastrutture e, in questo, il suolo riesce solitamente bene. Così bene che ci si comincia a chiedere se l’espansione urbana non sia dannosa in termini ecologici cioè se non sottragga una parte troppo rilevante alle altre funzioni del suolo. Il problema del consumo di suolo si delinea dunque come un danno ecologico complessivo, una perdita quasi irrimediabile di servizi ecosistemici. Naturalmente la lotta al consumo di suolo deve essere condotta anche con strumenti normativi ed economici che incentivino ristrutturazioni e ricostruzioni, disincentivando l’utilizzo di terreni liberi

The cork oak in the Mountains of Palermo (Italy): ecological insights from the south-eastern edge of its distribution range

The uneven presence of the cork oak (Quercus suber L.) within its distribution range is not only determined by its climatic requirements but also by specific edaphic needs. Although most of the natural populations thrive in acidic soils deriving from metamorphic or volcanic rock outcrops, some cork oak populations are found growing in soils deriving from calcareous bedrock, which are considered less suitable. We carried out a multidisciplinary investigation at the south eastern edge of the Q. suber distribution range (Mountains of Palermo, NW Sicily), including soil, floristic, and vegetation surveys, aimed at: (i) assessing the native or introduced origin of some peculiar cork oak populations; (ii) describing the associated plant communities and soils; (iii) identifying the ecological factors which could explain the local adaptation to soils deriving from calcareous bedrock; (iv) discussing the ecological role played by this species in the study area and within its distribution range. The collected information suggest that the detected cork oak stands are native to these areas. We hypothesized that the co-occurrence of high fire frequency, high soil calcium content and erosion, which caused the intermixing of different parent materials, might favor its competitive interactions with other Mediterranean tree species, thus accounting for the local presence of Q. suber. The study of cork oak populations thriving in peculiar substrates at the driest end of the range could be of great importance for the future conservation of this species, which is expected to face growing threats in the coming decades