Smart Urban Nature Laboratory: Soil quality & Soil health

In collaboration with the Russian University of People Friendship in Moscow, I develop, evaluate and integrate methods to monitor and assess the urban soil quality and health. This includes new techniques using X-Ray Fluorescence and Visible-Near infrared diffuse reflection and a combination of the traditional methods to measure total and bioaccessible (i.e. absorbed by an organism) heavy metal concentrations in soils. For the case of Moscow city, the soil contamination by multiple heavy metals as well as soil buffer capacity was analyzed, mapped, and considered to assess urban soils as geochemical barriers. “Hotspots” of contamination were shown in the central and eastern districts of Moscow with the most intensive traffic and congregation of industries.