Every year on December 5, the world observes World Soil Day, instituted by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN. The day emphasizes the critical role of soil as a foundation for human civilization and environmental sustainability.

Theme for 2025: “Healthy Soils for Healthy Cities”

• Need to Focus on Urban Soils: While attention typically goes to rural agricultural land, cities must focus on the soil in gardens, parks, and backyards. 
• Rising Urban Challenges: Currently, 56% of the global population resides in cities, facing issues like food insecurity, pollution, and climate extremes (floods and extreme heat).

Key Roles of Urban Soils in City Resilience

• Mitigating Climate Change and Heat: Healthy soil supports vegetation, absorbing heat and capturing CO2, reducing urban heat island effect.
• Managing Floods and Water: Soil acts as a natural sponge, enabling groundwater recharge and reducing street flooding in concrete-dominated cities.
• Supporting Urban Food Systems and Biodiversity: Fertile soil enables rooftop and backyard gardening, sustains microorganisms, earthworms, and pollinators, and enhances food security.
• Providing “Vitamin N”: Exposure to soil-rich green spaces reduces stress, anxiety, and depression, encouraging physical activity and mental wellbeing.

Challenges Facing Urban Soils

• Widespread Soil Degradation: According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), nearly a third of the world’s soils are degraded, a problem that is especially severe in urban areas.
• Contamination from Industrial and Human Activities: Urban soils are often contaminated by industrial waste, heavy metals, and pollutants, reducing their fertility and ecological health.
• Soil Compaction: Construction activities, heavy traffic, and urban development compact the soil, restricting water infiltration, root growth, and air circulation, which are essential for soil life.
• Loss of Organic Matter: Urban soils frequently lose organic matter due to lack of replenishment, reducing nutrient content and the soil’s ability to support plants and microorganisms.
• Soil Sealing: Covering soil with concrete, asphalt, or pavements effectively “seals” it, suffocating microbial life, disrupting natural water absorption, and worsening urban flooding and heat stress.

Way Forward for Promoting Healthy Urban Soils

• Urban Soil Restoration and Protection: Cities must prioritise rehabilitating degraded land through compost addition, soil testing and organic amendments. Limiting further soil sealing from new construction is equally critical to protect this non-renewable resource.
• Promoting Green Infrastructure: There is a need to replace concrete with soil-based solutions wherever possible. Soils under parks, rain gardens, and tree belts are not just aesthetic; they are vital infrastructure that reduces flooding and heat stress.
• Championing Urban Agriculture: Community and backyard gardens are powerful tools for improving soil health while providing fresh food, recreation and social bonding. The theme encourages everyone to plant, even in containers on a balcony.
• Embracing Responsible Soil Management: This involves adopting eco-friendly practices such as reducing chemical fertilizers, minimising pesticide use, planting native species, and protecting topsoil with mulching.
• Boosting Soil Literacy and Composting: Conduct hands-on soil workshops in schools and promote household composting to enrich urban soils.

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Conclusion

The resilience of cities depends not only on steel and concrete but on living, breathing soil. Caring for soil safeguards cities, public health, and our shared future. Healthy cities require healthy soils, which in turn depend on informed, engaged communities.

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