Abstract
Six key environmental, social and economic functions of soil are described, as well as the reversible and irreversible threats, caused by their uses. Sustainable use of soil is defined by the temporal and/or spatial (local or regional) harmonisation in the uses of the 6 functions, excluding or minimising irreversible ones, which is not a scientific but a political task.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
WEH Blum (1996) ArticleTitleSoil pollution by heavy metals – causes, processes, impacts and need for future actions Mittlg. Österr Bodenkundl. Ges. 54 53–78
WEH Blum (1998a) ArticleTitleAgriculture in a sustainable environment – a holistic approach Int. Agrophysics 12 13–24
WEH Blum (1998b) Soil degradation caused by industrialization and urbanization H-P Blume H Eger E Fleischhauer A Hebel C Reij KG Steiner (Eds) Towards sustainable land use, Advances in Geoecology 31 1CATENA VERLAG Reiskirchen 755–766
WEH Blum (2000) ArticleTitleSoil Resilience – The Capacity of Soil to React on Stress Bollettino della Società Italiana della Scienza del Suolo 49 7–13
WEH Blum H Eswaran (2004) ArticleTitleSoils for Sustaining Global Food Production Journal of Food Science 69 37–42
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Blum, W.E.H. Functions of Soil for Society and the Environment. Rev Environ Sci Biotechnol 4, 75–79 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11157-005-2236-x
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11157-005-2236-x