Soils of Urban, Industrial, Traffic, Mining and Military Areas

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Soils of Urban, Industrial, Traffic, Mining and Military Areas (SUITMA) is an international group dedicated to the scientific and applied research on Soils of Urban, Industrial, Traffic, Mining and Military Areas.

This page introduces SUITMA activities in Africa.

Aims and activities

SUITMA was created in 1998 during the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS) Congress held in Montpellier (France), thanks to the initiative of Prof. Wolfgang Burghardt.

SUITMA is chaired by Prof. Jean-Louis Morel and co-chaired by Prof. Ganlin Zhang.


The aims of SUITMA are :

  • Promote soil science in strongly anthropogenic areas (SUITMAs), where human future will meet major challenges (food, health, prosperity)
  • Stimulate multi-disciplinary research and teaching for a better understanding and sustainable management of SUITMAs
  • Increase the impact of soil science in the decision-making process for urban land management
  • Create a community of scientists dedicated to urban soil issues (soil, geology, agronomy, chemistry, physics, environment, forestry, horticulture, ecology)
  • Communicate to other communities : e.g. economists, lawyers, policy-makers, engineers, health, land planners, companies, citizens

Template:SUITMA - complement "SUITMA" stands for :

  • the name of the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS) working group dedicated to the study of SUITMAs,
  • the name of the conference organised every two years by the working group since 2000

The last conference, SUITMA-6 was held in Marrakech (Morocco) in 2011 ; a pre-conference tour is scheduled in Senegal.


Other activities of the SUITMA working group :

  • SUITMA will also organise a session on Urban soils at the next EGU conference (European Geoscience Union) - (2-7 May, 2010) in Vienna (co-chair Thomas Nehls, Christophe Schwartz)
  • SUITMA is associated to the Journal of Soils and Sediments since 2008. Contributions related to this specific area are welcome. See "An interdisciplinary working group of the International Union of Soil Science dedicated to soils strongly modified by human activities" (2008) Journal of Soils and Sediments, 8:206–207
  • A COST action on Urban soils was submitted to the EU call for proposals (25 September, 2009) by Franco Ajmone-Marsan. If successful, this action will strongly contribute to the missions of SUITMA.

Main topics of interest

Methodology for urban and disturbed soils

  • Soil description
  • Soil sampling techniques
  • Laboratory methods
  • Soil classification
  • Soil survey and mapping
  • GIS methods

Impacts of urbanization on soil resources

  • Land use change under urbanization
  • Pedogenesis and quality changes of urban soils
  • Physical aspects of urban soil changes
  • Chemical aspects of urban soil changes
  • Biological aspects of urban soil changes
  • Historical aspects of urban soil formation and characterization

Urban soils and ecosystem services

  • Ecological impacts of urbanization in regional and global scales
  • Urban soils and plants
  • Urban soils and hydrology
  • Biogeochemical cycling in the urban ecosystem
  • Pollution status and control of urban soils
  • Remediation & cleanup standards of contaminated soils
  • Ecological assessment of urban soil quality
  • Ecology-based urban land use planning

Urban soils, social and health issues

  • Urban soil management and legislation
  • Urban soils and human health
  • Urban soil education and training

See also

In the WICRI network
The reference page of SUITMA is on Wicri/Urban soils
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