Quantifying Spatial–Temporal Variability of Carbon Stocks and Fluxes in Urban Soils: From Local Monitoring to Regional Modeling

Human life, activity, and culture depend on their wider environment. While cities provide economic opportunities for goods and services, they cannot exist without food, energy, and water supply from their surroundings. Technical innovation of energy supply and transportation accelerates extension of urban areas and their physical separation from agricultural land. In consequence, the divide of urban-agricultural areas causes more energy demand for transportation of foods and goods between these areas (Owens 1986). As the energy resources are drawing from all over the world, environmental impact beyond city boundaries are growing, too. Although advances in energy and other technology may reduce the environmental impacts of consumption, there is still a gap between energy demand and supply with current technology, even in the most technologically advanced countries (Chambers et al. 2000). Therefore, reducing energy demand is more realistic than depending only on technological advances for sustainable development.