Research

Urban soils have been described as a “black box” – a poorly understood field of research that, until recently, was subordinated to agricultural soils research and geobiophysical sciences, more generally. Avoidance of urban soils research is attributed to their complexity. Urban soils exhibit a high level of variation due to anthropogenic activity which increases urban soils’ biochemical complexity by an order of magnitude. Also an obstacle, is the difficulty of performing large scale fieldwork and in-situ analysis because of site interference with urban structures. Yet just because something is difficult to understand does not mean that it should not be understood. USI’s Research Division supports sustainable urban resource management and conservation.