摘要
Purpose A very specific type of urban soils forms on buildings. They are developed from or on technogenic substrates. This work was conducted to assess properties of Edifisols occurring in different regions of Europe and northwest Africa. Proposals are made for the terminology used and the systematic position of the investigated soils in the World Reference Base for Soil Resources. Materials and methods The research was carried out in 2009-012 in seven countries. Samples (23 in total) were accidentally collected from 15 municipalities of different size and function ranging from villages, small tourist resorts through medium-sized regional centres to metropolises. Soil material was collected from two types of building components: horizontal (roofs, tops of the buildings, bridge surfaces; 17 samples) and vertical (cracks and gaps in the walls; six samples). Soil materials were submitted to standard physical and chemical analyses to determine selected soil properties. For statistical analysis, STATISTICA 9.0 software was used. Results and discussion The studied soils were very shallow, with the maximum thickness up to 10?cm. In the light of this study, several properties of the Edifisols should be regarded as characteristic, i.e. richness in artefacts and carbonates, very varied content of organic carbon (OC) and total nitrogen (Nt), elevated phosphorus content (Pca) and heavy metal contamination. The results of the statistical analysis showed that climate was not a key factor in differentiation of the studied soils. The properties of Edifisols are linked to their position on the buildings. Edifisols in concave forms differ from those located on vertical and horizontal surfaces. Stages of the development of Edifisols are presented taking into account the functioning of the building in the course of time. Conclusions Edifisols are formed as a result of initial, relatively natural soil-forming processes occurring on man-made substrates. Therefore, they may be considered as technogenic analogues of natural initial or weakly developed soils (Rendzic Leptosols, Folic Histosols and ornithogenic soils). They are often ephemeral soils susceptible to the influx of various contaminants. Due to specific location, genesis and properties, the qualifier Edific is proposed to supplement the next edition of World Reference Base (WRB).