![Sample our Urban Studies journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/110826/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Urban-Studies.jpg"})
Abstract
Soil is the upper, unconsolidated and weathered layer of the terrestrial crust. We perceive it as ubiquitous and therefore tend to take it for granted, managing, cultivating and exploiting it with little care and empathy. However, soil is limited, fragile and critically important because it constitutes a precondition for most life on Earth. In this essay, we want to draw attention to soil and the relationship humans have developed with it over time. The goal is to reflect on how this relationship has evolved, from approaches that implied continuous nourishment and care to more recent attitudes of dismissal and the risks these entail. We use three Mediterranean islands as lenses to read the codependency that characterizes soil formation and human life in harsh environments and discuss the consequences that changes in the anthropic factor have in the soil formation equation. Through the analysis of these cases, it will become clear that without care and attention, the highly anthropogenic soils on which most human life depends today will continue to be threatened with dissipation and loss.
Acknowledgments
We would like to express our most sincere gratitude to our colleague Duarte Santo, from Cornell University, for our two-year-long collaboration on the ‘Seven Mediterranean Islands: Soil Formation and Anthropic Pressure’ research project, to which this essay owes a great deal. We would also like to thank Mose Ricci from the Sapienza University of Rome for organizing The Mediterranean Ways research cluster, which sparked the conversations and collaboration that have led to this essay. Finally, we acknowledge that the authors’ names are presented alphabetically, which does not reflect the degree of their contributions; therefore, the article should be credited equally to both authors.
Notes
1 Jeffrey Howard, Anthropogenic Soils (Cham: Springer, 2017).
2 Roger Leb. Hooke, ‘On the Efficacy of Humans as Geomorphic Agents’, GSA Today 4/9 (1994), 217, 224–225: 225.
3 Alexandra Arenes and Bruno Latour, among others, have recently denounced the invisibility of soil and the so-called Critical Zone—the layer of the Earth that extends from the bedrock to the lower atmosphere—in conventional modes of representation derived from modernity, and have explored the use of anamorphosis in shifting to alternative formulas of representation that foreground the importance of soil. See: Alexandra Arenes, Bruno Latour and Jerome Gaillardet, ‘Giving Depth to the Surface: An Exercise in the Gaia-Graphy of Critical Zones’, The Anthropocene Review 5/2 (2018), 120–135.
4 Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2015).
5 We introduce the word ‘assemblage’ here with regard to the definition offered by American political theorist Jane Bennett, which she in turn borrows from Deleuze and Guattari: ‘Assemblages are ad hoc groupings of diverse elements, of vibrant materials of all sorts. Assemblages are living, throbbing confederations that are able to function despite the persistence presence of energies that confound them from within’, in: Jane Bennett, Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things (Raleigh, NC: Duke University Press, 2010), 23–24.
6 Vasily V. Dokuchaev, ‘Russian Chernozem’ [1883], in: Selected works of V.V. Dokuchaev, Vol. 1. Moscow (Jerusalem: Israel Program for Scientific Translations Ltd., 1948), 14–419.
7 Hans Jenny, Factors of Soil Formation: a System of Quantitative Pedology (New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 1941).
8 Dan H. Yaalon and Bruno Yaron, ‘Framework for Man-Made Soil Changes: An Outline of Metapedogenesis’, Soil Science 102/4 (1966), 272–277; D.S. Fanning, C.E. Stein and J.C. Patterson, ‘Theories of Genesis and Classification of Highly Man-Influenced Soils’, in: Abstracts of Commission Papers, Vol. 1, 11th Congress of the International Society of Soil Science (Edmonton, Canada, 1978), 283; William Effland and Richard Pouyat, ‘The Genesis, Classification, and Mapping of Soils in Urban Areas’, Urban Ecosystems 1 (1997), 217–228; Daniel Richter and Dan H. Yaalon, ‘“The Changing Model of Soil” Revisited’, Soil Science Society of America Journal 76/3 (2012), 766–778; among others.
9 Effland and Pouyat, ‘The Genesis’, op. cit. (note 8), 223.
10 Howard, Anthropogenic Soils, op. cit. (note 1), 27.
11 Ibid.
12 ‘Anthrosols comprise soils that have been modified profoundly through human activities, such as addition of organic or mineral material, charcoal or household wastes, or irrigation and cultivation.’ IUSS Working Group WRB, World Reference Base for Soil Resources 2014, Update 2015 International Soil Classification System for Naming Soils and Creating Legends for Soil Maps, World Soil Resources Reports No. 106 (Rome: FAO, 2014), fao.org/3/i3794en/I3794en.pdf (accessed 24 October 2022), 147.
13 ‘Regosols are very weakly developed mineral soils in unconsolidated materials that do not have a mollic or umbric horizon, are not very thin or very rich in coarse fragments (Leptosols), not sandy (Arenosols), and not with fluvic materials (Fluvisols). Regosols are extensive in eroding lands and accumulation zones, particularly in arid and semiarid areas and in mountainous terrain.’ Ibid., 172.
14 Randall Schaetzl and Sharon Anderson, Soils: Genesis and Geomorphology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005); Richter and Yaalon, ‘The Changing Model’, op. cit. (note 8).
15 Antoine Vialle and Mario Giampieri, ‘Mapping Urbanization as an Anthropedogenetic Process: A Section Through the Times of Urban Soils’, Urban Planning 5/2 (2020), 262–279.
16 Effland and Pouyat, ‘The Genesis’, op. cit. (note 8).
17 Ibid., 224.
18 Paul Crutzen and Eugene Stoermer, ‘The Anthropocene’, IGBP Global Change Newsletter 41 (2000), 17–18; Paul Crutzen, ‘Geology of Mankind’, Nature 415 (2002), 23.
19 Anna Krzywoszynska and Greta Marchesi, ‘Toward a Relational Materiality of Soils’, Environmental Humanities 12/1 (2020), 190–204: 190.
20 Bernardo Secchi, ‘Progetto di suolo’, Casabella 520–521/50 (1986), 19–23: 22. The definition of the Italian the word suolo in the Treccani Enciclopedia online is: ‘Superficie del terreno, in particolare, lo strato piu superficiale di esso, formatosi in seguito all’alterazione del substrato roccioso per successive azioni fisiche, chimiche, biologiche da parte di agenti esogeni e degli organismi che vi si impiantano.’ Treccani Enciclopedia online (2021), treccani.it/enciclopedia/suolo/.
21 Ibid., 22.
22 David Peleman et al., ‘Exploring the Soil: Not a Sentimental Journey’, OASE Journal for Architecture 110 (2021), 4–15.
23 For a recent article exploring the agency of soil in contemporary landscape architecture practice, see: Eric Guibert and Alec Tostevin, ‘The Fictional Soils of a “Sustainable” Anthropocene: A New Materialist Story of the Soils of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park’, Journal of Landscape Architecture 17/2 (2022), 76–89.
24 Jenny, Factors of Soil Formation, op. cit. (note 7).
25 Ibid., 11.
26 Bennett, Vibrant Matter, op. cit. (note 5).
27 Berenice Fisher and Joan C. Tronto, ‘Toward a Feminist Theory of Care’, in: Emily Abel and Margaret Nelson (eds.), Circles of Care: Work and Identity in Women’s Lives (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1991), 36–54: 40. Emphasis in original.
28 Maria Puig de la Bellacasa, Matters of Care: Speculative Ethics in More Than Human Worlds (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2017), 171.
29 Krzywoszynska and Marchesi, ‘Toward a Relational Materiality’, op. cit. (note 19), 194.
30 Dan H. Yaalon, ‘Soils in the Mediterranean Region: What Makes Them Different?’, Catena 28 (1997), 157–169: 159.
31 ‘Values of up to 50% of eolian material in hard limestone derived soils are highly reasonable.’ Ibid., 163.
32 Ibid., 164.
33 Gabriel Servera-Vives et al., ‘The Onset of Islandscapes in the Balearic Islands: A Study-Case of Addaia (Northern Minorca, Spain)’, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 498 (2018), 9–23.
34 Yaalon, ‘Soils in the Mediterranean’, op. cit. (note 30), 164.
35 ‘Endogenic processes encompass tectonic and volcanic processes, that is, geomorphic processes driven by geological forces, and exogenic processes include those driven by weathering, running water, ground ice, wind, and the action of the sea; that is, processes driven by climatic forces. To put it simply, endogenic processes create land, and exogenic processes destroy it.’ Richard Huggett, Fundamentals of Geomorphology (London: Routledge, 2017).
36 European Commission, Ready, Steady, Green! LIFE Helps Farming and Forestry Adapt to Climate Change (Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2019), dc5k4hhhkzdqp.cloudfront.net/media/Ready_Steady_Green.pdf.
37 IDE Menorca, ‘De Jeju a Menorca caminant per una partet seca’, cartografia.cime.es/publicacions/publicacions.aspx?tipo=CU&MENU=Inici (accessed 25 October 2022).
38 Jean Bisson, Yvette Veyret and Tomas Vidal, ‘Minorque Ou l’exception En Mediterranee: Une Ile sans Erosion’, Réseau Erosion - Bulletin 15 (1995), 137–148.
39 Tomas Vidal Bendito, ‘El paisatge rural de l’illa de Menorca’, Revista de Geografia 32–33 (1999), 23–44.
40 Bisson, Veyret and Vidal, ‘Minorque Ou l’exception’, op. cit. (note 38).
41 Tommaso La Mantia et al., ‘Variazione degli stock di carbonio del suolo in seguito ai processi di abbandono dei coltivi: il caso studio dell’isola di Pantelleria (TP)’, Forest@ 4/1 (2007), 102–109.
42 Photini Mylona et al., ‘Terrace Landscapes as Green Infrastructures for a Climate-smart Agriculture to Mitigate Climate Change Impacts’, in: Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies in Agriculture, Food & Environment (HAICTA 2020), Thessaloniki, Greece, September 24-27, 2020, 236–243.
43 Katerina Chazapi and Despina Sdrali, ‘Residents’ Perceptions of Tourism Impacts on Andros Island, Greece’, in: Carlos Brebbia and Francisco Pineda (eds.), Sustainable Tourism II (Southampton: WIT Press, 2006), 127–136.
44 Bisson, Veyret and Vidal, ‘Minorque Ou l’exception’, op. cit. (note 38).
45 OBSAM Observatori Social de Menorca, ‘Evolucio de la superficie agraria 2002-2015’, drive.google.com/file/d/1_Hmt6M558FE0gRJXV-iYJ2zaGhOooxZH/view (accessed 29 October 2022).
46 Miguel Morey and Maurici Ruiz-Perez, ‘The Balearic Islands’, in: Ioannis Vogiatzakis, Gloria Pungetti and Antoinette Mannion (eds.), Mediterranean Island Landscapes: Natural and Cultural Approaches (Dordrecht: Springer, 2008), 271–296: 286.
47 Bisson, Veyret and Vidal, ‘Minorque Ou l’exception’, op. cit. (note 38).
48 Ibid.
49 Silvia Stanchi et al., ‘Properties, Best Management Practices and Conservation of Terraced Soils in Southern Europe (from Mediterranean Areas to the Alps): A Review’, Quaternary International 265 (2012), 90–100: 94.
50 Ibid., 95.
51 Ibid.
52 Michalia Sakellariou et al., ‘Integration of Abandoned Lands in Sustainable Agriculture: The Case of Terraced Landscape Re-Cultivation in Mediterranean Island Conditions’, Land 10/457, (2021), 1–16: 3.
53 European Commission, Ready, Steady, Green!, op. cit. (note 36).
54 Sakellariou et al., ‘Integration of Abandoned Lands’, op. cit. (note 52), 2.
55 Ibid.
56 UNESCO, ‘The Island of Menorca Celebrates its 20th Anniversary as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve’, unesco.org/en/articles/island-menorca-celebrates-its-20th-anniversaryunesco-biosphere-reserve (accessed 29 October 2022).
57 Anthony H. Galt, ‘Exploring the Cultural Ecology of Field Fragmentation and Scattering on the Island of Pantelleria, Italy’, Journal of Anthropological Research 35/1, (1979), 93–108.
58 UNESCO, ‘Traditional Agricultural Practice of Cultivating the “vite ad albarello” (Head-Trained Bush Vines) of the Community of Pantelleria, ich.unesco.org/en/RL/traditionalagricultural-practice-of-cultivating-the-vite-ad-alberellohead-trained-bush-vines-of-the-community-of-pantelleria-00720 (accessed 29 October 2022).
59 Crutzen and Stoermer, ‘The Anthropocene’, and Crutzen, ‘Geology’, op. cit. (note 18).
60 Effland and Pouyat, ‘The Genesis’ and Richter and Yaalon, ‘The Changing Model’, op. cit. (note 8).
61 Rudi Dudal, ‘The Sixth Factor of Soil Formation’, paper presented at the International Conference on Soil Classification 2004, Petrozavodsk, Russia, 3-5 August, proprights.org/PDFs/workshop_2011/References/BAS/Soil%20References/Human%20Created%20Soils.pdf (accessed October 30, 2022).
62 Ibid.
63 Gerald Olson, Soils and the Environment: A Guide to Soil Surveys and their Applications (New York: Chapman and Hall, 1981), 113.
64 Guibert and Tostevin, ‘The Fictional Soils’, op. cit. (note 23).
65 Maria Puig de la Bellacasa, ‘Making Time for Soil: Technoscientific Futurity and the Pace of Care’, Social Studies of Science, 45/5 (2015), 691–716.
66 Krzywoszynska and Marchesi, ‘Toward a Relational Materiality of Soils’, op. cit. (note 19), 201.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Pablo Pérez-Ramos
Pablo Pérez-Ramos is an assistant professor of Landscape Architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD). He is a licensed architect from the ETSA Madrid, with Doctor of Design and Master in Landscape Architecture degrees from the GSD. His work focuses on establishing theoretical relations between the disciplines of design and the natural sciences. He has investigated the origins of contemporary ecological views in landscape architecture through an examination of the central debates of ecological theory. Recently, he has been looking at agricultural landscapes in extremely hot and arid conditions, as part of an attempt to formulate a thermodynamic theory of landscape architecture, which looks at the orders produced by design as an interference with the energy flows that shape the environment.
Stefania Staniscia
Stefania Staniscia is an associate professor of Landscape Architecture at West Virginia University, USA. A licensed architect and landscape architect, she earned an international PhD in Architecture from the Universita IUAV di Venezia. Her teaching and research journey spanned several Italian universities before relocating to the USA in 2015. Fascinated by the ever-changing nature of landscapes, Stefania is dedicated to exploring the intricate relationships between humans and landscapes, particularly those leading to notable disturbances. Her current research probes into cultural landscapes, concentrating on the repercussions of surface mining in Appalachia, while concurrently maintaining a profound interest in the role of islands as both tangible and symbolic tools for understanding and shaping spaces.