The Impact of Impervious Surface Expansion on Soil Organic Carbon: A Case Study of 0–300 cm Soil Layer in Guangzhou City

Jifeng Du, Mengxiao Yu and Junhua Yan
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Jifeng Du: Key Laboratory of Vegetation Restoration and Management of Degraded Ecosystems, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China
Mengxiao Yu: Key Laboratory of Vegetation Restoration and Management of Degraded Ecosystems, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China
Junhua Yan: Key Laboratory of Vegetation Restoration and Management of Degraded Ecosystems, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 14, 1-17

Abstract: Empirical evidence shows that the expansion of impervious surface threatens soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration in urbanized areas. However, the understanding of deep soil excavation due to the vertical expansion of impervious surface remains limited. According to the average soil excavation depth, we divided impervious surface into pavement (IS 20 ), low-rise building (IS 100 ) and high-rise building (IS 300 ). Based on remote-sensing images and published SOC density data, we estimated the SOC storage and its response to the impervious surface expansion in the 0–300 cm soil depth in Guangzhou city, China. The results showed that the total SOC storage of the study area was 8.31 Tg, of which the top 100 cm layer contributed 44%. The impervious surface expansion to date (539.87 km 2 ) resulted in 4.16 Tg SOC loss, of which the IS 20 , IS 100 and IS 300 contributed 26%, 58% and 16%, respectively. The excavation-induced SOC loss (kg/m 2 ) of IS 300 was 1.8 times that of IS 100 . However, at the residential scale, renovating an IS 100 plot into an IS 300 plot can substantially reduce SOC loss compared with farmland urbanization. The gains of organic carbon accumulation in more greenspace coverage may be offset by the loss in deep soil excavation for the construction of underground parking lots, suggesting a need to control the exploitation intensity of underground space and promote residential greening.

Keywords: expansion of impervious surface; underground space development; deep soil excavation; SOC loss in deep soil; urban renovation; Guangzhou city (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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