Use of Earth remote sensing data in mapping the soil structure of urban landscapes

The paper presents the results of mapping of the soil cover structure of the key site “Universitetsky” within the city of Volgograd. The southern part of the territory of Sovetsky and northern part of Kirovsky districts of Volgograd was chosen as the objects of research. The key site has an area of 15 km 2 . The main method of research of the key area was mapping with the use of remote sensing data in the QGIS programme and route ground surveys. High resolution colour space images were used as remote sensing information. Mapping of the soil cover structure of the plot was based on the approaches of M.N. Stroganova and E.Y. Sukhacheva. An automated method with manual training was used for mapping of day surface views of the key site territory. The names of soils and anthropogenic surface formations are given according to the Classification and Diagnostics of Soils of Russia 2004 with additions, as well as WRB (2022). Based on the results of mapping, a soil map-scheme of the key area was created, reflecting the features of the soil cover structure, spatial distribution of individual types (subtypes) of soils and technogenic-surface formations (scale 1 : 50 000), containing 19 legend units. The soil cover of the key site reflects the structure and character of land use and represents a variety of soils of both natural and anthropogenic origin. Among anthropogenic soils various agrozems and surface-agrogenically transformed chestnut soils were identified. Urban soils are represented by urban stratozems, compost-humus stratozems and humus urban stratozems. Among natural soils there are chestnut soils of different granulometric composition and degree of solonetisation confined to the ravine and gully network and adjacent watersheds. The eastern part of the site is represented by alluvial light and dark humus marl soils of different degrees of disturbance. Thus, the soil map-scheme can serve as a basis for a large-scale soil map for the entire territory of Volgograd, and will help to effectively solve the future problems of spatial planning in the implementation of landscaping and improvement of the urban area.