In order to comment on the soil quality, sensitivity and pollution of soil associations, it is necessary to consider their ecological properties in addition to a general overview of their distribution and heterogeneity in the municipal area (cf. Map 01.01). This primarily involves characteristic values regarding the chemistry, physical state and water balance of the soil. These characteristic values are primarily defined by the soil associations, but may be substantially influenced by current land use. The soil-scientific characteristic values described here have been derived from the soil associations, while also considering land use (cf. Maps 06.01 and 06.02). Within the framework of the required level of precision, it was assumed that all areas with the same soil association and land use would also display the same characteristic soil values.The characteristic values for every combination of land use and soil association were extracted from existing documents and determined as representative values. The data were primarily taken from the assistance manual for the maps of soil associations (Dissertation, Grenzius 1987), which documents landscape segments and sample profiles of particular soil associations, based largely on measurements by the Soil Science Department of the Technical University of Berlin (TU Berlin). In addition, various other soil-scientific maps were evaluated. Moreover, the results of the extensive soil analyses of the heavy-metal investigation programme for humus content and pH values were used.
For certain combinations, no measurements were available. In this case, the values were estimated by experts, based on data on comparable uses or comparable soil associations. Due to the variable number of measurements available per combination and the great number of inferred conclusions, the precision of the values presented varies greatly.
For most characteristic values, the data refer to the topsoil (0 – 10 cm) and the subsoil (90 – 100 cm) separately.
Due to the map scale, the legend items associated with the soil map refer to soil associations whose soil-ecological properties are extremely heterogeneous at times. The complexity of the ecological conditions has been reduced greatly for presentation purposes by matching characteristic values with a typical soil type within their soil association. Therefore, the soil-scientific database contains, in addition to the representative value (e.g. typical pH value), the maximum and minimum values available for further evaluation.
For these reasons, the maps are designed for general purposes only at a scale of 1 : 50,000, and cannot replace individual site-specific investigations.