ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the nature, properties, restoration, and sustainable management of urban soils for advancing food security and improving the environment. Urban ecosystems (UEs) encompass landscapes that account for exchanges of materials and influence between cities and the surrounding environment. However, UEs are not just expanding rapidly during the twenty-first century, but their inherent characteristics are also changing. Urban soils come under the overall category of Anthropic soils. Drastic perturbations of urban soils hinder numerous ecosystem functions and services, because anthropogenic controls predominate over natural factors with regards to the pedogenic processes. The concept of ecocities involves restoration of their hydrological functionality while reducing gaseous emissions. The strategy of restoration is to create novel soil types that enhance vegetative production even of nonnative species, denature pollutants, reduce salinization, and strengthen biogeochemical and biogeophysical cycling.
