Soil: Brown Infrastructure for Community Resilience

By Yujuan Chen

Soil is the foundation of life. It has great potential to mitigate current and future climate impacts by sequestering carbon, improving water supply and water quality, supporting plant growth, enhancing food production, and maintaining healthy communities, especially in urban and surrounding areas where more than 80% of Americans live, work, and play.

Here are some facts:

• Globally, about 95% of our food comes from soils (FAO, 2015).
• Soils store and filter water improving food security and mitigating floods and droughts (FAO, 2015).
• Soils host about 25% of our planet’s biodiversity (FAO, 2015). For example, 1 teaspoon of healthy soils (1 gram) can have up to 1 billion bacteria (Fortuna, 2012).
• Soils store more carbon than the atmosphere and terrestrial vegetation combined (FAO, 2017).

“Healthy Soils for Healthy Communities” Initiative

To better explore and utilize the potential of soils in Los Angeles, TreePeople launched the “Healthy Soils for Healthy Communities” Initiative this year. The objectives of this initiative include: 1) Elevating healthy soils as the “brown” in green infrastructure policy, planning, management, and investments in both the built and natural environments; 2) Increasing public and policy-maker awareness of the importance and potential of healthy soils in building climate resilience, sustaining urban ecosystem functions, and enhancing public health; 3) Conducting cutting-edge science and research that gets used to fill the information gaps; 4) Facilitating policy changes to promote and support healthy urban soil projects; and 5) Empowering communities with science-based information, best management practices, and practical tools.

Phase One: Needs Assessment

As the first phase of the initiative, we are conducting a needs assessment, funded by Accelerate Resilience L.A., a sponsored project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. It aims to: 1) determine the current status of Los Angeles’s urban soil health; 2) identify the most pressing urban soil issues and community needs through community consultation and outreach; and 3) provide a framework for future work regarding urban soil research, policy, public education and community engagement in the region.

Los Angeles Urban Soil Symposium

As part of the Needs Assessment, TreePeople hosted an online Los Angeles Urban Soil Symposium on June 26, 2020 which was attended by over 150 people. The symposium discussed general concepts, issues, and potential solutions related to urban soils, Los Angeles’s soils, a case study from New York City as well as TreePeople’s Initiative. Participants also had opportunities to share their insights about L.A.’s soil needs, challenges, and potential solutions and to interact with others from the region and beyond during the breakout group discussions. The videos and presentations from the symposium can be found here.

Moving forward, we are planning to conduct online surveys, focus groups, and a soil workshop to learn more about the needs, challenges and potential opportunities of LA’s soils. Your input will be needed, stay tuned. For more information, please visit the project website at: https://www.treepeople.org/healthy-soils-healthy-communities-initiative.