Healthy Soils for Healthy Cities

The theme for this year’s World Soil Day "Healthy soils for healthy cities” focuses on the role soils in cities and challenges posed by soil sealing and urbanization. 

World Soil Day (WSD) is an annual held event, endorsed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations (UN) General Assembly. Since 2014, WSD is recognized as an official international day and serves as a worldwide platform for raising awareness and a call to action within the framework of the Global Soil Partnership. Find more information here.

This year, we ask ourselves: Why are healthy soils so important for healthy cities? What are the threats and what are possible solutions?

Healthy soils offer us many values and ecosystem services. They are the basis for our food production and for the nutrition of the world population, that is currently estimated at about 8.3 billion people and continuously growing. About 55 percent of the world’s population lives in urban areas today and this number is expected to reach 68 percent by 2050, showing us that cities are a major center of life for more than half of the population. 

Healthy soils make healthy cities:

• They regulate temperature by cooling the air temperature;
• Store carbon and help to mitigate climate change and adaption;
• Increase Biodiversity;
• Filter air pollutants and water;
• Store large amounts of water; and
• Increase food security through agricultural use.

Yet, 62 percent of soils are affected by degradation processes or soil sealing. Main threats to soils worldwide include erosion, soil sealing, pollution, salinization, acidification, and eutrophication. The use of unsustainable management leads to negative impacts or loss of many ecosystem services and directly impacts humans’ health. 

If we think of soil, we usually think of rural areas and nature. But healthy soils are important for healthy cities in many ways: Beneath the soiled surfaces, lies soil everywhere. And if sustainably managed, unsealed and vegetated, urban soils can help to protect from flooding, overheating and pollution.

Many solutions for greener cities, such as permeable surfaces and reducing soil sealing, adopting green infrastructure and increasing green spaces, or using sustainable drainage and fostering urban agriculture already exist, but need to be implemented on a higher level. 

As individuals we can support by composting at home, using organic gardening methods and creating green spaces, supporting local initiatives and educating ourselves.

Worldwide, many events are organized each year around World Soil Day. Many of them can be found on the World Soil Day event map on the FAO World Soil Day website.

In our rubric Key facts on Soil Health, you’ll be able to learn more on the importance and ecoservices of our soils and their current state. Take our quiz below to check your own knowledge! Many of the answers to the questions below you can find on our key facts on soil health webpage.