Soils and Man-Made Surface Formations in Urban Landscapes

Abstract

Intensive and diverse human activity in large cities and their environs leads to a significant change in the environment: the relief, hydrographic network changes, natural vegetation is destroyed or replaced by urbophytocenoses, the soil cover is greatly transformed, climatic characteristics change, i.e. a specific type of urban microclimate is formed. In large cities, the anthropogenic impact becomes predominant over the natural factors of soil formation, which leads to the formation of specific soils and soil-like bodies (formations). In this case, the type of land use is the determining factor of the soil cover. Adverse environmental impacts lead to soil degradation, resulting in the destruction of vegetation. All this together leads to a deterioration in the chemical composition of the air and the general environmental situation that affects people's health. Unfavorable ecological processes significantly impede (prevent) the fulfillment by soils of the ecological functions assigned to them. A significant part of the territories of large cities is located in the zone of action of negative processes that affect the ecological state of the soil cover and soil functions. Ecologists predict that these impacts will intensify.