Suitable criteria are required for the evaluation and representation of natural soil functions and their archival function, as stated in the Federal Soil Protection Law; either singly or in connection with others, they characterize the respective soil function. The criteria for the evaluation of these soil functions (cf. Maps 01.12) were selected in the context of the drafting of the Berlin soil protection concept (Lahmeyer 2000). For the derivation of these criteria, characteristic values for the individual soil characteristics are required (cf. Maps 01.06). The method for the derivation of the individual criteria from the soil-scientific characteristic values and other information about the condition and distribution of soil types were also developed by Lahmeyer 2000 and applied exemplarily, but to some extent they were modified and complemented for implementation in the entire city area.
Only those criteria which were derivable from the existing information by relatively simple means were used for the evaluation of soil functions.