ABSTRACT
Many kinds of soil processes, such as degradation, resilience and rehabilitation, can only be understood on the basis of an energy concept for soil systems. Both forms of solar energy continuously contribute to weathering processes of rocks and minerals. Soil degradation can be defined as a loss or a reduction of soil energy. As all soil functions and soil uses are based on energy, it can also be said that soil degradation is equal to a loss or reduction of soil functions or soil uses. The spreading of urban and peri-urban areas including traffic and transport infrastructure causes sealing of productive agricultural and forest land, thus reducing biomass production, filtering, buffering and transformation as well as the gene reserve.
