Planning Advice for Soil Protection 2001

Map Description

The map shows the sections differentiated according to the four soil-protection categories, as well as the sections with no special requirements for soil protection. In addition, each protection category is distinguished by graduations of color intensity (shading) into the three imperviousness classes: 0 – 5 %; > 5 %, < 30 %; and 30 – 100 %.

Taboo (Off-Limits Area)

The areas of the highest protection category are concentrated primarily in near-natural sections with rare plant communities or outstanding remnants of the Ice Age in the outer areas of the city. Major contiguous areas of this protection category are located in the Spandau Forest on valley sand with eutrophic and oligotrophic eutric-histosols (i.e., bogs). These groundwater locations are associated with calcaric eutro-gleyic cambisols, calcaric cambisols, calcaro-gleyic cambisols and eutro-gleyic dystric cambisols (brown earths, largely with lime). Other locations near groundwater of the highest protection-worthiness category are at Tegel Creek, with eutrophic eutric-histosols, rare dystric gleysols and calcaro-dystric histosol; in the Buch Forest with eutric histosols, gleysols and stagno-gleyed cambisols on valley sand areas; and in Köpenick/ Müggelheim with fluvic and calcic-eutric histosols (bogs in flood-plains), in a deflation basin, filled with fine-grain drifting sands. These eutric histosols (bogs) are associated with dystric gleysols (wetland soils) in transition to dystric cambisols on low-nutrient locations. in the southwest of Berlin, in Kladow; dried eutric-histosols with fossil gleysols and dystric cambisols in a glacial runoff in the Glienicke Lake area have been assigned this high protection status. Other sections located at the edge of the Grunewald chain of lakes consist of eutric-histosols, in some cases dried, stagnic gleysols, fossil gleysols and dystric cambisols, and in the Tegel Airport/Jungfernheide area, with fluvic (flood-plain) soils. A special phenomenon are the drained fluvic soils with thick lime mud in Teerofen.

Smaller areas with eutric-histosols and gleyic (i.e., wetland) soils are located at the edges of unspoiled watercourses such as the Krumme Lake and the Kuhgraben in Köpenick, the Mill Stream in the Rahnsdorf Forest and the Wuhle Valley in Marzahn-Hellersdorf. The groundwater-characterized soil associations in the Havel lowlands in Spandau and in the Königsheide (“king’s heath”) in Treptow, and the fluvic soils in Heiligensee, also deserve mention.

Examples of sections with the highest protection category and with an additional main emphasis on the archival function are primarily the Ice-Age-characterized arenic dystric cambisols (brown earth turned to gley) associated with the podzoluvisols in the Frohnau Forest, and the arenic dystric cambisols associated with luvisols and gleyic cambisols in Gatow, which are used as farmland.

For the most part, these sections are forests or other uses, including predominantly mixed stands of meadowland, scrubland and forest. They also include agricultural sections (meadow/pasture and farmland), parks and residential sections (cf. Fig. 7). Most sections are already subject to protection status in other legal contexts. The highest protection is provided by conservation law, with the certification of official protected areas.

As expected , imperviousness degrees up to 5% dominate within the protection category Taboo. The quota of sections with an imperviousness degree of > 5 %, < 30 % is small, less than 10 %, and no sections in this category have higher imperviousness degrees than that (cf. Fig. 5). Altogether, of the 3,549 ha of total area in the category Taboo, 3,382 ha are pervious (cf. Fig. 6).

Priority 1 (Soils Deserving Exceptional Protection)

All sections with a high degree of efficiency with respect to yield function, regulatory function for the water balance or buffering and filtration function, or a medium degree of efficiency as a rare plant location, together with an archive function, are assigned to this protection category.

Major contiguous areas in this category, pervious or minimally impervious, are located at the end moraines or drumlins, with dystric cambisol – regosol – colluvial cambisol/gleysol soil associations, at the slopes of the Havel, at the Wannsee Lake and in the Gatow Heath. Another typical soil association with soils exceptionally deserving of protection soils are the soil associations of dune-sand with the series spodo-dystric cambisol – podzol – colluvial dystric cambisol in the Tegel Forest, Frohnau and Köpenick. At the latter location, these soils are in some cases interlocked with the associations described for the end moraines and drumlins.

Other areas are located in the Tegel Creek, with eutrophic eutric-histosol – histo-humic gleysol – eutro-gleyic dystric cambisol. Occasional small areas can be found on the Barnim Plateau, with sandy basin fillings, in Malchow and Wartenberg. The soil associations which occur here are dystric cambisol – colluvial cambisol and dystric cambisol – luvisol – eutric-histosol. Other occurrences of soil associations deserving of protection with basin filling are located in Spandau.

Sections with this assessment with medium imperviousness of > 5 %, < 30 %, are concentrated on the Barnim and Teltow plateaus, with bolder clay or bolder marl. The certified locations are generally in small segments, and located in the outer areas, in loosely built-up single-family home neighborhoods, such as in Lichterfelde, Lichtenrade, Rudow, Bohnsdorf, or in parks and allotment gardens. The soil associations deserving exceptional protection are of loamy substrata with luvisol – arenic cambisol associations.

The area category Priority 1 contains 17 % of the area evaluated, with about 13,022 ha, of which 11,241 ha are pervious (cf. Fig. 6). The distinctive factor is the relatively high share – approx. 10% of the total area – with a degree of imperviousness of > 5 %, < 30 %. The category of the highest degree of imperviousness, > 30 %, hardly occurs at all in this protection category (cf. Fig. 5).

The predominant uses in this protection category are forests, allotment gardens, parks and residential sections (cf. Fig.7).

Priority 2 (Soils Deserving Special Protection)

This category of soils deserving special protection is based on the high contribution of the soils to maintaining the water balance, or for their filtration and buffering capacity.

On large pervious complex at Müggel Lake is particularly striking, where the entire forest area on valley sand with dystric cambisol – stagno-gleyed cambisol – gleyic cambisol satisfies these criteria. In addition, there are smaller areas with acidic soil associations of drifting sand, like spodo-dystric cambisol – stagno-gleyic dystric cambisol. These dune-sand and valley-sandy soil associations, which are very much deserving of protection, can also be found in the Tegel Forest/Hermsdorf area, and at Tegel Lake. Smaller pervious areas are located primarily in the north and south of Berlin, on the Teltow and Barnim plateaus. The typical soil association is luvisol (gray soil) – arenic cambisol of boulder clay.

The moderately impervious sections in this category up to a degree of imperviousness of 30% are small and scattered. They include the luvisol – arenic cambisol soil association of boulder clay at Tempelhof Airport, on farmland sections in Gatow, and in the loosely built residential sections with single-family homes in Marzahn-Hellersdorf, Karow and Französisch-Buchholz. Other areas include the groundwater-affected soil associations on valley sand with cambisol – gleysol – eutric-histosol in the Königsheide, and dystric cambisol, stagno-gleyed cambisol and gleyic cambisol in the Plänterwald Forest. Soils of detritial sands on moraine areas with dystric cambisol – colluvial cambisol in the Westend neighborhood of Charlottenburg and in Tempelhof, used as allotment gardens, also fulfill these criteria. Such parks as the Rehberge Park, with spodo-dystric cambisol – dystric cambisol – colluvial cambisol of drifting sand, also deserve mention.

Soils deserving special protection with a high imperviousness degree of 30 – 100 % are limited to a few small areas, some in residential sections. These are primarily sandy deposit soils with the soil types loose lithosols (rock-fragment soil), calcaric regosol (lime), regosol (non-descript soil) and hortisol (garden soil). Certified sections include for example the West Berlin Zoo, areas along the Spree in Rummelsburg, and residential areas in Hermsdorf.

This category accounts for approx. 16 % of the area evaluated, and thus for a share of a similar size to that of Priority 1 (cf. Fig. 5). The order of magnitude of 10,490 ha of total area, of which 11,658 ha are pervious, is similar to the proportions for the Priority 1 area (cf. Fig. 6). The share with a degree of imperviousness of up to 5 % constitutes approx. 10 % of the total area, i.e., the largest part of the area for this category. The shares of the categories of greater degrees of imperviousness is very little, accounting for less than 5 % (cf. Fig. 5).

Soils with forest utilization account for the major share of the areas in this protection category, followed by residential areas, farmland and allotment gardens (Fig. 7).

Priority 3 (Soils Deserving Protection)

The category of the soils deserving protection is based on their medium-level fulfillment of the function both for the water balance and for the filtration and buffering fortune.

The pervious or slightly impervious share (0 – 5 %) of this category is a large contiguous area, the Grunewald Forest and the Düppel Forest. The dominant soil associations include acidic dystric cambisols with colluvial cambisols of detritial sands. Scattered areas of detritial sands, but over marl, are located in the Gatow Heath, and in Bohnsdorf, with colluvial cambisol – dystric cambisol – luvisol. In Heiligensee, soils of drifting sands with loose lithosols, cambisol/dystric cambisol – stagno-gleyed cambisol – gleysol, too, are characteristic soils in this protection category.

The share with a medium level of imperviousness (> 5 , < 30) is small, and consists of very small, non-contiguous areas. Examples are sections in the valley sands, such as the East Berlin Zoo, shore areas on the Spree in Köpenick, and Tegel Airport with dystric cambisol – stagno-gleyed cambisol – gleyic cambisol. In residential sections with more loosely-built single-family homes in Frohnau, the soils of drifting sand with spodo-dystric cambisol – dystric cambisol – colluvial dystric cambisol are deserving of protection. In the residential sections of Zehlendorf and Dahlem and the Hasenheide Park, the dystric cambisol – regosol-cambisol – colluvial cambisol soil association of detritial sand fulfill these prerequisites. In the loosely-built areas in Kladow and to some extent in Gatow, luvisol – colluvial cambisol is present. Groundwater-affected associations of this protection category exist in the residential sections of Müggelheim and Rahnsdorf with dystric cambisol – stagno-gleyed cambisol – eutro-gleyic cambisol on valley sand, to some extent linked with podzol (coniferous-forest) soil associations of drifting sand. On the Barnim Plateau, in Wittenau and Pankow, there is primarily dystric cambisol – luvisol associated with dystric cambisol – colluvial cambisol or gleyic cambisol of detritial sands (mixed with Ice-Age material).

The highly impervious sections (30 – 100 %) account for the major share of this protection category. They are concentrated on the Barnim and Teltow Plateaus, in the south and north of the city. These locations are chiefly located in such densely built-up areas as Steglitz, Prenzlauer Berg, Pankow, Lichtenberg or the Märkisches Viertel in Reinickendorf. The soil associations are anthropogenically characterized, and sandy deposits are frequently the basic material for their soil formation. The dominant soil types are therefore little developed A – C soils, such as loose lithosols, regosols, calcaric regosols and hortisols.

This category accounts for the largest area among the protection categories, with 23 %. The total area is 17,415 ha, of which 11,140 ha are pervious (cf. Fig. 6). Where in the other protection categories, sections with degrees of imperviousness of less than 30 % predominated, this category is primarily characterized by sections with a high degree of imperviousness, of 30 – 100 %. These are largely located on the residential sections of the plateaus, some even within the urban-rail ring line. Sections with a low degree of imperviousness of < 5 % are negligible, accounting for only approx. 3 % (cf. Fig. 5).

The sections with this weakest protection category are found predominantly in the residential sections, but also in forests (Fig. 7).

Non-Relevant Areas (Soils with No Special Requirements)

Under this evaluation system, most soils and soil associations in Berlin are subject only to the general soil protection requirements. These soils are shown in gray, regardless of their degree of imperviousness. They frequently constitute large contiguous complexes. These are primarily densely built-up sections with a high degree of imperviousness, especially in the center city, and also include industrial sites along the Spree in Treptow and along the Havel in Spandau as well as in Lichtenberg, Neukölln, Tempelhof and Reinickendorf. The soil associations in these areas are predominantly anthropogenically characterized, and have developed mostly from sandy deposits. Their common characteristic is a short development time with weakly developed A – C horizon formation. They are primarily loose lithosols, regosols and calcaric regosols.

Natural soil associations on bolder marl, glacial sand or valley sand with the soil types regosol, dystric cambisol-regosol, gleyic regosol and luvic regosol are located on former sewage-farm areas in the north of Berlin, in Pankow and Weissensee, and on a small scale in Gatow. These areas have no particular protection status, due to their potential or real pollutant content. The same applies to the soils of contaminated landfill, such as dumps, industrial and bolder marl landfills, and railway track beds.

These soils can be found on almost 40 % of the areas evaluated. More than 50 % of these sections have a degree of imperviousness of 30 – 100 % (cf. Fig. 5). Only 15,759 ha of the soils of this category are pervious (cf. Fig. 6).

The soils with no special protection status are largely concentrated in residential sections, industrial and transportation areas, and areas with other uses. The high share of farmland with low assessment is due to areas with former sewage-farm use. Due to the existing pollution, these are excluded from assessment in a protection category.