The FAO–IUSS Symposium on Soil Sealing and Urban Soils, co-organized by the FAO, its Global Soil Parntership, the FAO Green Cities Initiative and the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS) through its SUITMA Commission (Soils of Urban, Industrial, Traffic, Mining, and Military Areas), will take place in Pisa, Italy, from 6 to 7 October 2025. The symposium is embedded within the SUITMA Conference, which runs from 5 to 9 October 2025 with support from the Research Institute on Terrestrial Ecosystems (IRET) of the Italian National Research Council (CNR). It will serve as an international platform, addressing the science-policy interface on urban soils.
FAO will lead two dedicated hybrid sessions on 6 and 7 October from 14:00 to 16:00. In-person participation in those two sessions will be open to all, while access to the full SUITMA conference programme requires registration and payment of a conference fee.
The symposium will bring together experts, policymakers, and practitioners to:
- Identify and promote integrated strategies for sustainable urban soil management;
- Examine practices and policy frameworks for soil unsealing and restoration;
- Foster cross-sectoral collaboration for scaling urban soil solutions.
The two FAO-led sessions will explore the following themes:
Theme 1: Urban soil management
Strategies for maintaining healthy soils in urban and peri-urban areas, including sustainable planning, multifunctional land use, mitigation of soil threats, and soil use optimization to support biodiversity, water regulation, climate mitigation and resilience, and food production.
Theme 2: Soil desealing and restoration
Best practices, methodologies, and case studies on soil unsealing, addressing challenges related to soil function recovery, and policy and infrastructure changes needed to facilitate unsealing in urban settings.
Click here to check the programme
