What is InterUrban?

Urban soils are subject to strong variations in environmental conditions such as water flow, solute transport, and heat budget. For soil scientists, the effects of the temporal and spatial dynamics of soil moisture distribution on the sorption and release of contaminants is crucial for understanding soil processes.

The InterUrban research project was formed in 2001 in Berlin, Germany, to study the dynamics of water and materials at urban locations while giving special consideration to spatial heterogeneity, organic soil substance, and soil-biological transformation processes.

The project is the cooperative effort of seven departments of the Technical University of Berlin and the Free University of Berlin; namely the departments of soil sciences, soil chemistry, water quality control, environmental chemistry, microbiology, soil zoology, and applied geophysics. The initiator and speaker is Prof. Gerd Wessolek and it is sponsored by the German Research Council (DFG) as research group 409, "Water and Organic Matter in Anthropogenic Soils: Dynamics and Processes".