Identification, Evaluation and Management of Human-Transformed and Human-Constructed Soils and Landforms
A special issue of Land (ISSN 2073-445X). This special issue belongs to the section "Land, Soil and Water".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 16 July 2026
Special Issue Editors
Interests: soil origin, morphology and properties in accordance to the geologic, morphological and climate factors; soil classification, including the applications of WRB; soil properties and productivity of forest and agro-ecosystems; soil contamination with trace elements and remediation techniques; monitoring of soil quality
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: reclamation of urban; industrial; and traffic areas; soil protection and reclamation; landscape architecture; landscape engineering; spatial planning for environmental engineers and landscape architects; land arrangement and maintenance; landscape protection; the spatial economy of cities
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The majority of people live in cities and the other areas characterised by advanced soil transformation by deep mixing, relocation, and addition of external materials. These activities and additions are joined with transformation of the land surface and serious modification of soil profiles or with the development of intentionally constructed soils. Human-transformed and human-constructed (HTCS) soils may acquire properties beneficial for food production and other ecosystem services (recreation, climate change mitigation, water retention, etc.) or may pose a serious threat to environmental quality and human health. The wise management of such soils and terrains requires their identification, characterisation and classification using the tools, which comprehensively reflect the origin and kind of soil transformation. Classification of HTCS has been extensively elaborated in recent editions of the World Reference Base (WRB) and USDA Soil Taxonomy; however, there is still a need for new or improved solutions (criteria, diagnostics, qualifiers) in response to permanently growing knowledge about soils transformed by agriculture, horticulture and forestry and soils in urbanised and industrial areas, both recently and in the distant past. The research topics of interest in this Special Issue are as follows: (i) specific landforms and morphology of HTCS; (ii) properties of HTCS beneficial for their ecosystem services, in particular in urban and industrial areas; (iii) risks from HTCS to human health and environmental quality; (iv) evaluation of soil health for HTCS; (v) improvement of evaluation and classification criteria for HTCS in international soil classification systems.
We look forward to receiving your original research articles and reviews.
Prof. Dr. Cezary Kabala
Prof. Dr. Andrzej Greinert
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Land is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- technosols
- anthrosols
- artesols
- soil classification systems
- soil health
- ecosystem services of anthropogenic soils
- land management on anthropogenic soils
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