From time to time, and in relation to needs, human society has considered soil as a means of agricultural and forestry production; seat of urban and infrastructure settlements; place of leisure and sport; source of raw materials; in summary, a source of goods and services useful to life. Soils fulfill basic functions for human society, not only in practice, because soils satisfy human material needs, but also in the abstract, stimulating intellectual activity or indulging needs of spiritual well-being.
The management of soil fertility is still at the heart of this connection. Regrettably, “Homo technologicus”, descendant of Homo sapiens, has been forced to live in ever-bigger cities, feed on fast food and think on the web, breathe air conditioning in hyper-technological offices and impersonal lofts.
This book, a special issue of Advances in GeoEcology, contains several peer reviewed papers presented at the 6th International Congress of the European Society for Soil Conservation (ESSC). Many of them are interconnected with the ‘Innovative Strategies and Policies for Soil Conservation’ in Europe and offer reflections and recommendations on soil issues that need to be addressed considering that Soil Science nowadays has a crucial role to play in achieving sustainable systems of use and management of the landscape that meet the needs of an increasingly global and technological society