Urban Soil Assessment: Limiting Negative Environmental Impacts and Optimising Ecological Benefits of Urban Soil Transformation

Bossard, Alexandre;Cavalieri, Chiara;Ska, Olivier;Pourtois, Joëlle

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UrbanSoilAssessmentLimitingNegativeEnvironmentalImpactsandOptimisingEcologicalBenefitsofUrbanSoilTransformation.pdf
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Abstract
In the context of the rehabilitation of former industrial districts into mixed-use neighbourhoods to meet the city’s current needs and to avoid urban sprawl, building typology changing, soil unsealing and revegetation are displayed as goals by the public authorities. These soil transformations aim to improve quality of life and city resilience (reducing heat island effects, decreasing flood risks, …). However, these transformations are also facing challenges, like soil pollution, high division of private ownership and densification pressure. This paper presents a methodology to analyse and estimate, both at large scale and at small scale, the positive and negative impacts of soil transformations and the links between authorities' objectives and on-field operationalisation. This methodology calls upon different disciplines, such as urbanism, hydrogeology and pedology, to allow a decompartmentalised analysis of soils in the urban system. The case of the Cureghem District in Brussels, Belgium, is studied, as this district is facing issues that can be found in many European cities: pollution coming from its industrial past, increasing flood risks and heat waves due to climate change. At larger scale, this paper proposes a systemic perspective highlighting the interrelations and interconnections between the built environment, the soil and the underlaying subsoil. This three-dimensional approach enables the reconceptualisation of urban soils based on these interrelations, highlighting the ecological opportunities or the critical impacts of soil transformations. At the scale of the plot/block, the integration of detailed data concerning soil contamination, mixed use of the buildings, protection of heritage buildings and infiltration potential allows the expression of global objectives into applied mechanisms leading to the achievement of those objectives. This analysis highlights levers and obstacles to an environmentally friendly urban soil transformation. In Cureghem case, the articulation of the visions based on these two scales enlightens authorities' decisions up to their application.
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