Presentation and overall theme
Soils, defined by the World Reference Base for Soil Resources as “any material within 2 meters of the Earth’s surface that is in contact with the atmosphere, excluding living organisms, areas with continuous ice not covered by other material, and water bodies deeper than 2 meters", also can be thought of as the “epidermis of the earth”. At the interface between the lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere, soils are dynamic and multifunctional environments that are essential to known and documented ecological functions such as water and contaminant regulation, carbon storage, nutrient supply, soil structure maintenance, and biodiversity support.
Soils are the result of a long formation process and are non-renewable on a human scale. Preserving them is essential in the context of multiple ecological crises. However, many soils are altered or threatened by human activities leading to the loss of biodiversity, loss of organic carbon, contamination, excess nutrients, acidification, reduced water retention capacity, compaction, salinization, erosion, etc.
They can also be thought as a disciplinary interface: while they are a research subject in pedology and explored by other life sciences (ecology, hydrology, agronomy, etc.), they have more recently become the subject of spatial transformation professions (project designers, consulting firms, project owners, etc.) and are even giving rise to considerations in social sciences (political science, economics, law, etc.). Living soils, often perceived as coveted land, infrastructure supports or real estate assets, highlight power relations and raise economic, legal, social, and spatial issues.
This international conference aims to explore the conditions for a paradigm shift in spatial planning, by examining how land use models and practices, at different temporal and spatial scales, can evolve to better take into account the ecological dynamics and functions of soils. This broad question requires exploring the conditions for the evolution of technical, economic, legal and governance models that currently underpin spatial planning practices.
This call for papers is rooted in an interdisciplinary perspective at the interface between research and action. Beyond analyzing current soil management practices and policies, the aim is to identify opportunities for action and transformation of land use models.
The conference is structured around four complementary themes, which will be the subject of four sessions over two days. Each session encourages a cross-disciplinary approach (environmental sciences, social sciences, spatial transformation disciplines, etc.).
1. Understanding and representing soils and their functions
The first area of interest will focus on issues related to soil knowledge and representation. Before soil can be preserved and restored, it must first be identified as an object of study, described, and named.
1.1. Understanding soils and their functions
Contributions may propose an analysis of the tools and methods used to understand soils and their functions, examining the spatial and temporal scales at which these tools are applied, the land uses affected by these mechanisms, and the types of indicators prioritized in different contexts. A geographical diversity (France, Europe, international, but also urban, peri-urban, agricultural and industrial areas) of case studies is encouraged.
Particular attention may be given to the challenges of assessing – and quantifying – soil health: this involves examining the side effects of quantifying a qualitative concept.
Contributions offering insights into demand, appropriation and reception of scientific knowledge on soils by public decision-makers and operational actors is also encouraged.
Analytical frameworks offering cross-disciplinary insights into soil- and water-related issues are also welcome.
1.2. Considering soil degradation and threats
This first session of the conference also revisits anthropogenically induced threats and damages to soils, particularly the issues of contamination, land take, and the effects of climate change.
In particular, it highlights current scientific dynamics and frontiers in the field of soil contamination, ranging from the discovery of new pollutants to experiments with decontamination techniques.
The vulnerability of soils to climate change and drought may also be addressed, echoing the challenges of water management.
The effects of land take and soil sealing on soil functionality and continuity may also be discussed via a cross-disciplinary reflection on ecological corridors (e.g., green, brown and blue).
1.3. Representing soil
Understanding soils also means making them visible. Significant attention is given to contributions that examine modes of representation of soils and the interactions that take place within them.
This may include the place of soils in the arts (visual arts, plastic arts, sound arts, etc.). The choices – and their meanings – made in two- or three-dimensional visual representations (maps, diagrams, profiles, etc.) may be examined.
Contributions may also focus on the narratives and imaginaries conveyed by these representations, and on the links between representations and capacities for action on soils.
2. Preventing land take and limiting threats to soil functionality
The second theme of the conference focuses on the challenges of avoiding land take and reducing threats to soils. It examines the evolution of technical, architectural, economic, and legal models that promote soil conservation practices.
2.1. Abandoning projects that induce land take
A major aspect of soil preservation involves abandoning development projects whose impact on land take is particularly high. Contributions may question the principle of restraint in light of a tradition of pro-development local political leadership: how can we justify the choice to “give up” large-scale projects?
Focus may also lie on the dynamics of protest and resistance to large-scale development projects, studying local political mobilization and the circulation of their repertoires of action.
From a more legal perspective, contributions may examine environmental law tools, their implementation, and their effective capacity to limit land take in France, Europe, and internationally.
2.2. Planning Differently: Rethinking Urban Production through Land Frugality
This session of the conference focuses on alternatives to land take and urban sprawl, exploring the conditions for achieving zero land take.
Renovation of old housing, mobilization of vacant housing, potential for densification, temporal or spatial intensification of building uses, or even possibilities for elevation: contributions may explore the technical and architectural conditions for more circular urban planning.
Furthermore, participants are encouraged to examine economic levers that enable the city to be rebuilt on top of itself and that promote avoidance practices, from the planning to the project scale.
From a public policy perspective, contributions may also examine the conditions for local implementation of the EU No Net Land Take objective. International comparisons are particularly encouraged.
2.3. Planning “with” soils by limiting their degradation ?
The session also invites participants to examine the controversial idea that soil conservation hinders regional development.
Contributions may examine issues related to land use conflicts, particularly concerning tensions and contradictions that arise with the promotion of different soil ecosystem services.
Focus may further lie on the basis of empirical examples showcasing how urban planning law and environmental law can be coordinated around a “living soil law” that is currently being developed in Europe.
Contributions may also question the sometimes delicate coexistence of different timeframes in development projects: duration of legal proceedings, development projects schedules, time required for ecological processes, etc.
3. Repairing soils: transforming technical, economic, and legal models
The third thematic focus of the conference is on the ecological improvement and restoration of soils and their functions, following on from the Chair's first two symposiums in 2024.
3.1. Improving and restoring ecological soil functions: what are the technical challenges?
The session invites participants to consider the technical and practical aspects of improving and restoring ecological soil functions: How to restore ecological soil functions? Which functions should be restored, and which parameters should their restoration be based on? What conditions are necessary for these processes to take place? And at what scales can or should they occur?
In particular, it examines the diversity of restoration techniques and methods, the conditions for their implementation, and the degree to which they are impacted by restoration objectives, the initial site context, etc.
Contributions may reflect the latest scientific developments in soil engineering, circular economy, and soil construction.
The potential for passive restoration through natural ecological processes and spontaneous recolonisation by organisms must also be examined. What role should a 'hands-off' approach play in ecological and soil engineering practices?
In order to question how restored and ecologically improved soils can be integrated into spatial, architectural, and landscaping projects, it may also be necessary to examine knowledge transfer between project designers and experts from soil science, ecology, and hydrology.
3.2. Financing and regulating soil restoration
The session also addresses the economic and legal levers that can be used to make soil restoration strategies operational and enable their implementation on a large scale.
Contributions may examine changes in economic models for land use planning that would make it possible to finance the improvement and restoration of soil functions, as well as their long-term monitoring: accounting for the ecological debt caused by soil degradation could be one avenue to explore.
At the same time, it is necessary to examine legal models for protecting ecologically improved and restored soils: how can we guarantee the preservation of urban green areas of particular ecological value in the same way as natural, agricultural, and forest areas? What land ownership tools can be used? This involves examining how issues relating to soil conservation are addressed in planning documents.
Contributions may also critically reflect on possible or existing links between compensation schemes and restoration efforts that are conducted in the frame of No Net Land Take objectives.
3.3. Caring for restored soils: what local practices are used?
Finally, contributions may focus on management and care practices for restored and ecologically improved soils, as well as the actors responsible for them.
Particular attention may be paid to the temporal issues associated with the management and monitoring of restored and ecologically improved soils: how long does it take to restore the main functions of a soil? How long do the ecological and pedological processes involved take in urban environments?
The involvement of local populations in micro-practices of soil care or small-scale restoration may also be explored.
The role of passive restoration practices and their adoption by project owners and local residents is also examined, with a focus on the tensions between aesthetic requirements and the spontaneity of ecological processes.
4. Governing living soils
The final session of the conference focuses on the social and political configurations that enable the development and implementation of strategies for preserving living soils. It involves reflections on modes of soil governance and the socio-economic impacts of soil degradation, and forward-looking perspectives on the soils of tomorrow.
4.1. Envisioning new models and new scales of soil governance
Current and future soil governance models are particularly scrutinized.
The aim is to examine the place of soils within an established institutional system, and explore how they can be managed by a variety of institutions (water agencies, basin committees, national forestry offices, etc.).
Reflections on the appropriate territorial scale for soil governance are particularly encouraged: is it possible to go beyond administrative scales of governance? Echoing bioregions or ecoregions, is it possible to conceive pedoregions? How can pedological and hydrological scales be linked?
The session may also address the challenges of recognizing legal personality for non-human subjects: just as animals, rivers, and other natural elements have legal personality, would it be possible to consider legal personality for soils?
Finally, the place of soils in land commons may be explored: could this mode of ownership help reduce soil degradation and support soil restoration?
4.2. Preserving soil for whom? Managing environmental risks and inequalities
The session also addresses the links between socio-spatial inequalities and soil degradation from a perspective of environmental justice.
Contributions may address issues such as soil contamination and environmental risk management through the lens of social vulnerabilities: how can we live with pollution and inhabit contaminated soil?
Inequalities in access to nature in cities may also be considered: who are greening and soil restoration projects aimed at? What effect do these projects have on marginalised urban populations? How do they affect the affordability of housing? Is the concept of 'green gentrification' applicable?
Contributions may also examine issues of soil adaptation, resilience, and resistance to climate change: which populations are most vulnerable to the risks of drought, flooding, or clay shrinkage and swelling? What are the risk management challenges for the insurance sector?
4.3. Thinking about the soils and landscapes of tomorrow: forward-looking perspectives
Prospective approaches are also given space: the aim will be to explore vanishing points, as well as different scenarios that combine soil preservation, spatial forms, and landscapes.
Contributions may examine the links between socio-political configurations and spatial arrangements, sketching out the future landscapes of soil-centric urbanism.
Reflections on the relationship between city and nature are encouraged, particularly regarding the tensions between the logic of separation (“land sparing”) and the logic of reconciliation (“land sharing”).
Visual and/or artistic approaches are welcome.
