Soils for the people.

The Urban Soils Philosophy

Soils fundamentally support every square foot, acre, and square mile of this City and its living green infrastructure. Only this kind of living matrix can hold water, break down hydrocarbons, sequester metals, and facilitate all workings of Nature to make urban centers more sustainable. The huge job in front of all cities then is to build soils and the life they support into all urban development going forward and to incorporate the development of urban soils into the legacy landscapes that urban centers hope to preserve and sustain. 

As urban centers embrace green infrastructure for climate resiliency, water resources management, urban heat island mitigation, food security and long term sustainability, demand for the knowledge of urban soils has grown. It is clear that our understanding of urban soils has not kept pace. There is a significant gap between the needs and existing resources. So, this is a call for everyone to engage!

We believe that soil is no longer the sole domain of just agricultural sciences. It is not fruitful to work and learn fragementally in independent fields. Soils aren’t a science, they’re Nature. Science is our knowledge bank. Nature is cohesive, soils being the stitch and the common ground uniting the sciences with the humanities to gain better understanding and knowledge about our habitat and ecosystems.

About USI

USI is  a platform for the people by the people. 

Like soils, our business is to collaborate and stitch efforts and information together; to always work with the parts and the whole together, and promote holistic understanding of our environment and our interactions with the environment. To live as part of/symbiotically within nature, through understanding it, we make better decisions, find solutions, benefit from our resources and environment, and make our cities and our world healthier, with the aim to support all life.

We are headquartered on Governor's Island, where we host scientist-artist residencies and curate public programs, and on a landfill-turned-National Park, where we conduct research and lab work and offer courses. We annually convene global practitioners across multiple fields to exchange best practices and launch new research and enterprises.

USI’s annual symposium is a joyful convening of global practitioners across multiple fields to exchange best practices and launch new research and enterprises.

Mission

The mission of the NYC Urban Soils Institute (USI) is to advance the understanding and promote sustainable use of urban soils through research, education, conservation, restoration, and collaboration. The USI achieves its mission through five divisions:

1. Soils Testing and Technical Services | Soil testing, interpretation, and field technical services

2. Education & Engagement | A wide range of soil science and conservation training opportunities

3. Data Bank & Exchange | A platform for soils data storing, organization and sharing for NYC

4. Research | Coordination of an urban soil science research agenda

5. International collaboration | For building stronger urban soils communities globally, maximizing collaboration

The USI achieves these goals through partnerships, resource sharing, and coordination of programs; by offering a platform for cross-disciplinary communication, dissemination, collaboration between government, academia, industry, practitioners, policy, communities, and individuals.

— Tatiana Morin, Director and Co-Founder