Soil as a Landscape

Though it is true that soil – a complex ecosystem that is crucial to our survival and an invaluable repository of biodiversity – is nowadays the focus of abundant theoretical and practical attention and of much in-the-field experimentation, it is also true that all too often one hears of soil considered as a surface that can be freely put to any use, an inert and colourless canvas that becomes interesting only when something is placed upon it or hidden beneath it.

Returning to the issues discussed during the Soil as Landscape programme devised for the 2020 International Landscape Study Days, the fifteen authors of this volume once again bring their experience and their diverse disciplinary and cultural backgrounds to bear on the shared belief that soil actually has a value in and of itself, that it is not only a primary and irreplaceable element in the definition of the characteristics and quality of our environment and our landscapes, but that it is, itself, landscape.

Soil is the connective tissue, sustenance and vital process that accompanies our experience of life, it is the physical, social and aesthetic dimension that gives substance to the places we inhabit and our sense of belonging to a landscape and to the Earth.