ALLUVIATED SOILS OF THE SAINT-PETERSBURG CITY

Abstract

Saint-Petersburg macro urban landscape is situated in the most important part of the Baltic environment. Th is urban landscape is situated in the Neva Lowland and is known as the most anthropogenically transformed part of Russian North-West and Scandinavian region. Saint-Petersburg city has a huge area of hydraulically constructed (alluvial) soils or soil-like bodies, situated on the banks of the Gulf of Finland. Th ese constructed grounds form the territory of parks in residential areas. Soils of the alluvial territories, created by human, play an important role in landscapes functioning and formation of ecological stability. Alluvial fi lled territories are considered as a semi-natural environmental model of landscape development in urban conditions. New formed soils of artifi cial landscapes have been described and their ecological functions are discussed as well. Constructed ground is characterized by problematic physical properties, which are not favourable for plants, soils of new formed plots show evidences of increased hyrdomorphism, gleyfi cation and formation of contrast layers phenomena. Artifi cial grounds of new hydraulically formed lands are characterized by number of soil-ecological problems.