خاک شهری و سلامت انسان: یک بررسی Urban soil and human health: a review

Introduction The urban environment represents socio-ecological systems and the most complex mosaic of land cover and multiple land use of any landscape (Andersson, 2006). Edmondson et al. (2012) reported that urban soil represents about 3% only of the global terrestrial surface, but 54% of the world’s population now live in urban areas according to the 2014 Revision of World Urbanization Prospects (United Nations, 2014). The urban population is likely to increase by 2.5 billion by 2050, accounting for 66% of the global population (United Nations, 2014). The soil, an important component of the Earth that provides vital functions for human society (Amundson et al., 2015), has been studied in mainly rural and semi-rural areas, and its importance is often overlooked or underestimated in urban environments (Hazelton & Murphy, 2006). Oliver & Gregory (2015) observed both direct and indirect effects of the soil on human health. Humans are directly exposed to contaminants in soil through skin contact, inhalation, ingestion and consumption of plants grown in soil, whereas indirect effects include interactions between soil, the soil microbial community, vegetation and the nutritional value of foods and human health. Water and air directly influence our health because of direct contact through ingestion and inhalation, but the connection between human health and soil is often more complex and thus is not well understood. There are some comprehensive reviews on soil and human health (Oliver, 1997; Abrahams, 2002; Pepper, 2013; Brevik & Sauer, 2015; Oliver & Gregory, 2015; Steffan et al., 2018), but there is little focus on urban soil in these. With the rapid economic development and urbanization, urban soil plays an increasingly important role in environmental and human health. In this review, we focus on the relations between urban soil and human health. First, we examine the ecosystem functions of urban soil, and second, the interactions between urban soil contamination, vegetation and soil microbial diversity and human health are investigated. Finally, soil management and policy related to human health are also summarized.