ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to establish basic definitions in the area of ecosystem services. It offers a combined hydrologic-taxonomic perspective that can be used to identify type, availability, and sustainability of benefits rendered from the urban soil ecosystem; and discusses statistical approaches to quantitative interpretation thereof. Ecosystem services derive from soil functions, which are themselves reliant upon the presence or absence of different influences on pedogenesis. The weathering of parent materials through time and climate creates soils whose genesis is further modulated by topography and vegetative cover. This conceptual basis of pedogenesis through agroecosystem processes is relatively well characterized. The type and potential for ecosystem services can shift as a soil is urbanized to provide structural stability for permanent habitation. The evaluation of urban soils for their functional attributes is necessarily a multivariate endeavor. The specific physical, chemical, biological, and situational aspects of a soil determine its competence to support ecosystem functions.
