Green Infrastructures and the Consideration of Their Soil-Related Ecosystem Services in Urban Areas—A Systematic Literature Review

Pia Minixhofer,Rosemarie Stangl

doi:10.3390/su13063322

Pia Minixhofer, Rosemarie Stangl

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su13063322

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Abstract

Although urban soils are strongly influenced by human activities, they provide a wide range of Ecosystem Services (ES) as long as they are not sealed off. This is a major sustainability issue as the loss of soil functions directly impacts ES and further on the possibility to adapt to the effects of the climate crisis. Green Infrastructure (GI) measures can be utilized to restore previously covered soil surfaces and compensate for lost soil functions. We conducted a systematic literature review to investigate the extent of peer-reviewed publications on GI measures in (peri-) urban areas covering soil-related ES. After identifying the relevant publications (n = 284), we generated an overview of the annual, spatial, and thematic distribution of the publications. Then, we employed an extended content analysis of the published focus topics to assess the representation of soil-related ES provided by GI. The content analysis revealed that the representation of soil-related ES in GI measures focused heavily on the contribution of soil to stormwater management. Detailed assessment of the interconnection of GI measures with key soil-related ES were missing. So far, the assessment of the loss of soil-related ES is not covered extensively in GI research publications.

Highlights

The pressure on soil and land in urban areas increases due to competing land uses such as living, working, infrastructure, energy, or recreation, as a result from intensifying urban immigration and the amplifying effects from the climate crisis [1]
Urban soils are strongly influenced by human activities and highly heterogenous in their chemical, physical, and biological properties, they can still provide a wide range of provisioning, regulating and cultural Ecosystem Services (ES) [2,3] to more natural soils [4,5,6] as long as they are not sealed off
We provide an analysis of the contextual discussion within the published focus topics, pointing out the soil-related ES provided by Green Infrastructures (GI) measures

Summary

Introduction

The pressure on soil and land in (peri-) urban areas increases due to competing land uses such as living, working, infrastructure, energy, or recreation, as a result from intensifying urban immigration and the amplifying effects from the climate crisis [1]. When the soil surface is sealed for land use purposes, as e.g., infrastructure or building development, valuable fundamental soil functions get lost [5]. Biodiversity pool and habitats; (4) source of raw materials; (5) carbon pool; (6) physical and cultural environment for human activity as well as (7) archive of geological and archaeological heritage. The occurrence of these soil functions leads to raising soil quality within landuse boundaries. Soil quality promotes plant growth and biological productivity, secures biodiversity and habitation, supports animal and human health, regulates water infiltration, and buffers pollutants [9,10]

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