ABSTRACT
In the following dialogue, Qiu Rongliang and Seth Denizen sat down in the School of Environmental Science and Engineering at Sun Yat-Sen University to discuss the relationship between urban planning and soil science in China's industrial south. The two discussed the present and future challenges of soil taxonomy in urban settings, from New York City to Guangzhou, including new methods of integrating biochar technologies and wastewater management into urban planning schemes, rice production in industrial areas, and the interface between local politics, economics, and geology. Qiu discussed his recent work on the soil chemistry of cadmium availability in several different rice species, and its relation to China's hybrid urban-rural landscapes. Denizen discussed this work in relation to his recent project, The Eighth Approximation: Urban Soil in the Anthropocene, in reference to unfinished versions of soil taxonomy in the past, which used to be called approximations. Denizen's vision includes digital renderings of “gentrified regolith/citified soils,” textural classes for bricks and concrete, the geomorphology of construction debris, street soils, and dredged landfills. The dialogue concluded with a discussion of what a merged soil science and urban design curriculum might look like, and a consensus that more integrated approaches between the disciplines are needed.
