Soils in older areas of cities are highly contaminated by lead, due largely to past use of lead additives in gasoline, the use of lead in exterior paints, and industrial lead sources. Soils are not passive repositories and periodic re-suspension of fine lead contaminated soil dust particulates (or aerosols) may create seasonal variations of lead exposure for urban dwellers. Atmospheric soil and...

As the world's urban population continues to grow, it becomes increasingly imperative to understand the dynamic interactions between human activities and the urban environment. The development of urban environmental geochemistry has yielded a significant volume of scientific information about geochemical phenomena found uniquely in the urban environment, such as the distribution, dispersion, an...

Stormwater management that relies on ecosystem processes, such as tree canopy interception and rhizosphere biology, can be difficult to achieve in built environments because urban land is costly and urban soil inhospitable to vegetation. Yet such systems offer a potentially valuable tool for achieving both sustainable urban forests and stormwater management. We evaluated tree water uptake and r...

Soil contamination with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) is an increasing problem in many countries, including China. An extensive and systematic survey has been undertaken to evaluate the contamination with PAHs of urban soils in Beijing, China. Soil samples were collected from campuses of universities, schools and kindergartens, public squares, fallow land and roadsides, and were analy...

Arsenic contamination is of concern due to its effect as a carcinogen. Understanding the distribution of arsenic in urban soils is important for establishing baseline concentrations from which anthropogenic effects can be measured. The soil cleanup target level (SCTL) for arsenic in Florida (0.8 and 3.7 mg kg(-1) in residential and commercial areas, respectively) is lower than in most states an...

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) are byproducts of combustion and are ubiquitous in the urban environment. They are also present in industrial chemical wastes, such as coal tar, petroleum refinery sludges, waste oils and fuels, and wood-treating residues. Thus, PAHs are chemicals of concern at many waste sites. Risk assessment methods will yield riskbased cleanup levels for PAHs that rang...

This study analyzes the scientific production about soils within cities in Brazil, most populous country of Latin America, to highlight significant patterns and contributions point out gaps future challenges. A more robust literature urban Brazil started 90´s decade has intensified since 2015. Papers are mostly published Portuguese, majority performed with than 500,000 inhabitants, many them lo...

A precipitation pattern scheme was combined with Koppen climate classes to form a five-class Global Climate Scheme for Urban Climate Studies (GCS/UCS) that explains observed diurnal variations of urban heat island (UHI) magnitude in different climatic zones. The validity of this scheme was demonstrated using urban/rural micrometeorological field measurements obtained during summer and winter in...

Modern agriculture, in seeking to maximize yields to meet growing global food demand, has caused loss of soil organic carbon (SOC) and compaction, impairing critical regulating and supporting ecosystem services upon which humans also depend. Own-growing makes an important contribution to food security in urban areas globally, but its effects on soil qualities that underpin ecosystem service pro...

The dermatophytes, keratinophilic fungi, represent important microorganisms of the soil microbiota, where there are cosmopolitan species and others with restricted geographic distribution. The aim of this study was to broaden the knowledge about the presence of dermatophytes in soils of urban (empty lots, schools, slums, squares, beaches and homes) and rural areas and about the evolution of the...