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Soil Sealing and Unsealing 62,/6($/,1*$1'816($/,1*67$7(2)7+($57$1' (;$03/(6 Short title: SOIL SEALING AND UNSEALING Silvia Tobias*a), Franz Conenb), Adrian Dussa)c), Leonore M. Wenzelb), Christine Busera)c), Christine Alewellb) a)Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Landscape Ecology Group, Zürcherstrasse 111, 8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland, [email protected] b)University of Basel, Department of Environmental Sciences, Bernoullistrasse 30, 4056 Basel, Switzerland c)University of Zurich, Department of Geography, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland *Corresponding author (also for proofs): Silvia Tobias; [email protected]; Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL; Zürcherstrasse 111; CH-8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland Tel: +41-44-739 23 49; fax: +41-739 22 15 7KLVDUWLFOHKDVEHHQDFFHSWHGIRUSXEOLFDWLRQDQGXQGHUJRQHIXOOSHHUUHYLHZEXWKDVQRW EHHQWKURXJKWKHFRS\HGLWLQJW\SHVHWWLQJSDJLQDWLRQDQGSURRIUHDGLQJSURFHVVZKLFKPD\ OHDGWRGLIIHUHQFHVEHWZHHQWKLVYHUVLRQDQGWKH9HUVLRQRI5HFRUG3OHDVHFLWHWKLVDUWLFOHDV GRLOGU 7KLVDUWLFOHLVSURWHFWHGE\FRS\ULJKW$OOULJKWVUHVHUYHG Abstract Soil sealing for urban and infrastructure development constitutes the most intense form of land degradation and affects all ecosystem services. Researchers and policy makers have become aware of this fact and call for limiting development and compensating for new soil sealing with unsealing measures. In a literature review, we found that the state of research about the impacts of soil sealing is far more advanced than about the potential and prerequisites of unsealing. In practice, soil restoration after mining and construction activities as well as redevelopment or renaturation of abandoned industrial sites are increasingly important issues, but systematic research on the success of soil unsealing and restoration is rare. In particular, the development of soils and vegetation after unsealing and restoration measures as well as their potential to provide ecosystem services need more detailed investigation. In three case studies, we demonstrate that replacing a sealed surface with soil to restore ecosystem services is always beneficial for humans and nature. An indicator-based mapping approach revealed the potential performance of different ecosystem services at former industrial sites in Switzerland. When unsealed sites are transformed to pioneer habitats, the intended vegetation may successfully be regained, but landscape connectivity is hardly enhanced due to increased overall landscape fragmentation. Our investigations show that with the techniques currently applied, the soil physical parameters in a restored agricultural soil developed favourably for crop growth within 15 years. However, unsealed soils are anthropogenic soils with reduced multifunctionality and protecting natural soil against sealing is always the better option. Key words soil restoration, land recycling, brownfield regeneration, SUITMA, circular flow land use management 7KLVDUWLFOHLVSURWHFWHGE\FRS\ULJKW$OOULJKWVUHVHUYHG 1. Introduction In a world of climate and land use change, soils are essential to sustain life generally and humans in particular Amundson et al., 2015 . In addition to soil erosion, soil sealing (for definition refer to Table 1) is one of the greatest threats to the soil and its ecosystem services (Montanarella, 2007; EC, 2012) and is a common syndrome of land degradation around expanding urban areas. Historically, most cities arose in agriculturally productive regions. Hence, their growth coincides with a degradation of the most fertile land (Ceccarelli et al., 2014). Prokop et al. (2011) estimated that artificial surfaces covered 4.4% of the total surface area of the 27 member states of the European Union in 2011 (EU 27), of which 51% was imperviously sealed and amounted to more than 100,000 km2. From 2000 to 2006, the increase in artificial surfaces in EU 27 was 3%, which is greater than the total increase in population of 2%. This development leads to a continuous rise in land-take per capita and year of approx. 2 m2 of additional artificial surface. Conversely, countries with predominant service economies often have considerable expanses of brownfields (Table 1) because societal and economic changes have led to changing requirements regarding the location of industries and infrastructure, or because military sites have been closed. In 2000, the Netherlands and Belgium, for example, hosted 10,000 and 14,500 hectares, respectively, France 20,000 hectares, England and Scotland 67,000 hectares, and Germany 128,000 hectares of brownfields. The largest extent of brownfield area was reported from Poland with 800,000 hectares and Romania with 900,000 hectares (Oliver et al., 2005). Sealing greenfields without restoring brownfields is clearly unsustainable, as soils are destroyed and the options of future generations to satisfy their needs are restricted even further. Unsealing brownfields and restoring ecosystem services should increasingly be considered as a contribution to reduce net soil loss and to preserve the overall natural capital for future generations. US EPA (2014) promotes unsealing soils as a contribution to green infrastructure and points out the multiple benefits for humans and nature. However, unsealing soil usually requires the remediation of contaminated sites or at least the insolation of the contaminants, which causes 7KLVDUWLFOHLVSURWHFWHGE\FRS\ULJKW$OOULJKWVUHVHUYHG additional costs. Yet remediation costs also arise, if contaminated brownfields are regenerated for developed uses such as residential areas. This paper presents a brief literature review on the state of research and practice considering the impacts of soil sealing and the efforts of soil unsealing. We further present three case studies, in which we assessed the potential and feasibility of restoring ecosystem services by unsealing soil. 2. Literature review 2.1 Method of literature review We analysed literature on the state of research on the impacts of soil sealing and the state of the art in soil unsealing. We used the Google search machine because, particularly for soil unsealing, it was comparably more comprehensive (including so called “grey” literature such as reports from authorities or research projects) than the Web-of-Science. We used the key words “land-take” and “soil sealing” in combination with “ecosystem services” to access recent research on the impacts of land-take and soil sealing. To find literature about soil unsealing, we used the key words “soil unsealing/dismantling”, “land recycling” and “brownfield regeneration/renaturation” separately. We searched for the key words in the titles, key words and texts of English and German publications. After screening the abstracts, we selected ca. 50 articles on soil sealing and 35 publications on unsealing. 2.2 Soil sealing: a core reason for land degradation in industrialised countries Soil sealing in the course of urban sprawl can be considered an active driver of desertification (Barbero-Sierra et al., 2013), which is the most serious form of land degradation. Soil sealing directly influences the soil’s regulating services (Scalenghe & Ajmone Marsan, 2009; Tobias, 2013). Sealed surfaces prohibit water infiltration and cause stronger surface run-off. Underground soil sealing for basements or garages additionally reduce the water infiltration paths and consequently the soil’s water purification capacity (Nakayama et al., 2007). The predominance of heat-absorbing concrete and asphalt together with the absence of evaporating vegetation entail the effect of heat islands in cities (Bolund & Hunhammar, 1999). The use of sealed areas for 7KLVDUWLFOHLVSURWHFWHGE\FRS\ULJKW$OOULJKWVUHVHUYHG industry or car traffic additionally affects unsealed soils in the neighbourhood with pollutants (Mendyk & Charzyński, 2016; Charzyński et al., 2016). Land-take for urban and infrastructure development has further a strong impact on the soil’s provisioning services. The loss of agricultural land due to development is particularly high in countries with strongly growing populations and economies (Toth, 2012). Gardi et al. (2014) estimated a total loss of agricultural land in 21 member states of the EU 27 between 1990 and 2006 of 12,000 km2. They further calculated the consequent yield loss for 19 states in their sample being more than six million tonnes of wheat per year. Considering supporting services, soil sealing strongly reduces the soil’s function as natural habitat. As topsoil is usually removed, soil sealing entails a considerable loss in soil biodiversity (Scalenghe & Ajmone Marsan, 2009; Montanarella, 2007). Consequently, soil sealing reduces the total and microbial content of carbon and nitrogen and soil respiration (Piotrowska-Dlugosz & Charzyński, 2015). The remnant natural habitats are often fragmented due to roads and railway-lines. Jaeger et al. (2011) showed for Europe that the greatest landscape fragmentation occurs in densely populated regions with dense transportation systems. Urban expansion and landscape fragmentation lead to a considerable shift in species richness towards generalist and ubiquist species at the expense of specialist and indigenous species (Di Giulio et al., 2009; Concepción et al., 2016). Even cultural ecosystem services may be impaired by soil sealing, as can be derived from the fact that people are willing to pay higher housing prices at places with views on natural landscape elements or urban parks (Tyrwäinen, 1997; Waltert & Schläpfer, 2010). In addition, urban parks and undeveloped landscapes are important places for recreation (Frick
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