The ENVIBASE-Project

Documentation / Online Handbook

Soil

Description of the Problem

Since the beginning of the 1980s, the interest of environmental policy has turned towards soil protection. The high point of this development is the passing of a soil protection law, the goal of which is to secure or restore the functions of soil.

The central problem of soil protection is the destruction and digging up of land, as well as nutrient pollution (primarily in agriculture), contamination, and land use.

For urban agglomerations such as Berlin, land use, sealing, contamination through industrial production, storage (depots), pollution, and changes in the ground through sinking groundwater levels with the accompanying consequences for vegetation (conservation) play an important role.

The development of basic principles for soil protection are determined by the soil protection measures to be implemented. Soil decontamination is included in the spectrum of measures, as is the delineation of protected areas or the recommendation for limitations of use. For data collection on soil quality, it is first necessary that, in addition to the natural characteristics of the soil, substance levels and human influences also be taken into account. From these principles, an appraisal can be developed that describes the suitability for current and potential use, the fulfilment of particular functions, the need for protective measures, and emergencies.

Data Sources

Because of the particular importance of the soil contamination problem in Berlin, for approximately ten years there has existed a register for polluted land in which all parcels considered polluted or suspected of being polluted are recorded. This includes depots and storage facilities, sewage farms, defunct or active industrial or commercial locations that have dealt with potentially ground-polluting substances, and areas where larger accidents/spills of dangerous substances have taken place. Approximately 5,500 such locations are known.

During the last few years in Berlin, a variety of fundamental principles and evaluation maps have been developed at the higher planning level (1:50 000). For the creation of this material, a wide range of different data sources were used. The data are maps, files, or results from various investigations of different organisations like the public administration or the universities and are comprised by the following: soil profile samples from drilling holes, geological data, soil use, war damages, groundwater level, soil communities, level data, Landsat TM scenes, infrared aerial photographs, historical maps, soil parameters, heavy metal point data, and others.

Methods

Related to the form and validity of the existing data, different methods were chosen for the presentation of the different themes. In the case, for example, of measurement point data like heavy metals, which are representative only for a small area round the point, it’s not possible to use them for the representation of a wider area. They can be presented only as point data. For other data, like level or groundwater data, interpolation programmes were used to calculate for example topographical or groundwater depth maps.

For the analysis of satellite data, special calculation programmes were used. Some of the maps produced out of various data sources, like the maps of soil communities, are conceptual maps. They are a mixture between the evaluation of "hard" data like soil profiles or drilling holes and analogical references to areas with the same real use and similar natural conditions. This method is useful for all investigations evaluating huge areas, where it is not possible to finance exact samples or mapping.

For the development of some fundamental principles like the height of terrain, special calculation programmes were used and implemented into the EIS.

Some data, like contaminated sites, were managed in separate registers with the functional possibilities of modern databases.

Results

The maps have been developed for the higher planning level (1:50 000). Most of them have so far been published or will soon be published in a printed form, on CD-ROM or on other digital media like the internet:

• Environmental basics: soil community maps, soil parameter, height models, height above groundwater;
• Human impact: sealing, open space development, heavy metals in soil, soil contamination;
• Evaluation maps: valuable soils, vulnerability of the groundwater to pollution, affinity for heavy metals.

Uses

A demarcation of special data for soil protection from other data sources is not always easy. However, data collected and managed under other branches can be of use to those involved in soil protection. This applies, for example, to the related fields of conservation and preservation of the countryside, water economy, investments in old industrial sites, etc.