Division 3, Soil Use and Management, and Soils of Urban, Industrial, Traffic, Mining and Military Areas (SUITMA) Working Group
Who
Takashi Kosaki, Chair, Division 3 and Jean-Louis Morel, Chair, SUITMA Working Group
What
1) International Union for Quaternary Research, XIX Congress (INQUA Congress 2015)
2) The 8th International Conference of the Working Group on Soils in Urban, Industrial, Traffic and Mining Areas (SUITMA 8), IUSS
When & Where
1) July 26 through August 2, 2015, Nagoya Congress Center, Nagoya, Japan
2) September 20 through 25, 2015, The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Mexico City, Mexico
Soil Message
1) Once every four years, Quaternary researchers from all over the world meet at the INQUA Congress to exchange the latest research results and develop agendas for the years to come. In 2015, the Congress took place in Nagoya, Japan. The Congress had 1,790 participants from 68 countries and regions (http://inqua2015.jp/index.htm). IUSS held for the first time in the congresses the following session below for promoting soils research activities in the community of Quaternary researchers.
Takashi Kosaki, Chair of Division 3 and Jean-Louis Morel, Chair of SUITMA together with Professors Makiko Watanabe and Masayuki Kawahigashi of Tokyo Metropolitan University, Japan, and also the members of the Japanese Society of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition, convened the session entitled “Urban soil development”. Morel gave a plenary lecture and 6 oral and 2 poster were presented from France, Japan and Mongolia.
Soils studies in Quaternary research have mainly belonged to peleopedology with the goal to help reconstructing paleo-environment but are now shifting their direction to understanding more about processes as summarized by Watanabe. They all recognized that the studies of the impact of the human activity and the response of soil in urban area are rightly on the stream of Quaternary research and thus further researches in soils under human impacts in historical as well as modern time scale to promote active interactions between Soil Science and Quaternary researches is highly required. The next XX INQUA Congress will be in Ireland in 2019.
They also published “Soils of Anthropized Environment” as Supplementary Issue of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition (SSPN), one of the IUSS cooperating journal, in July and distributed during the congress. Since all papers in this issue are freely accessible by courtesy of the publisher (Taylor and Francis) till the end of October, all of you are very much welcome to visit its web site (http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/tssp20/current#) and feel free to download whatever you are interested in.
2) Worldwide urbanization has risen from 25% in 1950 to more than 50% nowadays. By 2030 more than 60% of world’s population will live in cities. In consequence, the soil surface is increasingly sealed by constructions, roads railroads and airports. Also industrial and mining activities have affected severely particular terrains, which need rehabilitation. People living in cities, opposite to indigenous rural communities, are seldom aware of the vital processes occurring in soil, which maintain plant cover, and regulate water and air quality. The purpose of the congress is to provide a forum for gathering the scientists and people working on the soils taken care of by SUITMA Working Group and share, discuss and distribute the up-to-date information to each other and to the open public. The congress is programed for oral and poster presentation together with pre- and post-congress tours.
(http://www.geologia.unam.mx/~cisu/suitma8/)