Building activity is the most serious threat to soils in Germany today. Because there are no binding rules how to protect soils, land use planning is currently the only way to regulate the destruction of soils due to various building activities. To aid soil protection, a simple method for the evaluation of soils is needed, so that planning agencies can identify the value of a soil and consider it in their decisions. The key question is, which soil functions to consider and how to evaluate them. Of the soil functions named in the German soil protection law, the following are relevant here: 1. site for plant growth (in two sub-functions). 2. water balance regulation (in two sub-functions). 3. archive for natural and cultural history. To derive a method for the evaluation of soils in Saxony-Anhalt, maps from the German soil assessment and of the potential natural vegetation were used as a data base. Five categories were defined for each soil function. The use of the method was exemplified for Jerichow County and the adjacent city of Magdeburg. The existing soil potentials, the most sensible soil use and conflicts with the goals of soil protection were shown. |