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A soccer field can be considered a soil-like technogenic formation (STF). According to the theory of soil cover patterns, the artificially constructed (anthropogenic) soil cover of a soccer field is an analogue of a relatively homogeneous elementary soil area. However, the spatial homogeneity of the upper part (50–80 cm) of the STF of soccer fields is unstable and is subjected to gradual transformation under the impact of pedogenetic processes, agrotechnical loads, and mechanical loads during the games. This transformation is favored by the initial heterogeneity of the deep (buried) parts of the STF profile. The technogenic factors and elementary pedogenetic processes specify the dynamic functioning regime of the STF. In 50–75 years, the upper part of the STF is transformed into soil-like bodies with properties close to those in zonal soils. Certain micro- and nanopatterns of the soil cover are developed within the field creating its spatial heterogeneity.

The aim of this research was to estimate the risk of human exposure to arsenic due to sporting activities in a private soccer club in Mexico, where arsenic-contaminated water was regularly used for irrigation. For this purpose, the total concentration in the topsoil was considered for risk assessment. This was accomplished through three main objectives: (1) measuring arsenic concentrations in irrigation water and irrigated soils, (2) determining arsenic spatial distribution in shallow soils with Geographical Information Systems (GIS) using geostatistical analysis, and (3) collecting field and survey data to develop a risk assessment calculation for soccer activities in the soccer club. The results showed that the average arsenic concentrations in shallow soils (138.1 mg/kg) were 6.2 times higher than the Mexican threshold for domestic soils (22 mg/kg). Furthermore, dermal contact between exposed users and contaminated soils accounted for a maximum carcinogenic risk value of 1.8 × 10−5, which is one order of magnitude higher than the recommended risk value, while arsenic concentrations in the irrigation water were higher (6 mg/L) than the WHO’s permissible threshold in drinking water, explaining the contamination of soils after irrigation. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first risk study regarding dermal contact with arsenic following regular grass irrigation with contaminated water in soccer pitches.

Analyzing football as a cultural practice, this book investigates the connection between the sport and its built environment. Four thematic sections bring together an international multi-disciplinary range of perspectives with particular focus on the stadium. Examples from architectural design, media studies and archaeology are used while studying advertising, economics, migration, fandom, local identities, emotions, gender, and the sociology of space. Texts and case-studies build up this useful book for lecturers and researchers in sociology, cultural studies, geography, architecture, sport and environment. \"Through a wonderfully eclectic collection of essays, the stadium and its meanings, influences and resonances are the central subject of this carefully considered and well thought book.\" – Geografiska Annaler Introduction: Football, Space and the Built Environment Sybille Frank & Silke Steets Part 1: The Politics of Representation and Design 1. The New European Stadium Anthony King 2. \"Show Yourself to the People!: Ancient Stadia, Politics and Society Bettina Kratzmüller 3. Challenging the Stadium: Watching Sport Events in Public Hans-Jürgen Schulke Part 2: Architecture and Media 4. The Stadium as a Cash Machine Michael Zinganel 5. The Mirror Stage in the Stadium: Media Spaces of Television and Architecture Angelika Schnell 6. Killing Sports Fields: The Amahora Stadium Complex in Kigali, Rwanda Bruno Arich-Gerz Part 3: When Global Flows Meet Local Cultures 7 . Global Players and the Stadium: Migration and Borders in Professional Football Christian Banse 8. Going to the Match: The Transformation of the Match-day Routine at Manchester City FC Tim Edensor and Steve Millington 9. \"Come Home\": The Stadium, Locality and the Community at FC United of Manchester Adam Brown Part 4: Gender and Space 10. Sport, Football and Masculine Identity: The Stadium as a Window onto Gender Construction Christian Bromberger 11. Producting Gender-normative Spaces in U.S. Women's Professional Soccer Tiffany Muller Myrdahl 12. Football Under Cover in Tehran's Ararat Stadium Corinna Assmann and Silke Gülker Part 5: Emotions and the Body 13. Emotions in Sports Stadia Mike S. Schäfer & Jochen Roose 14. Heroes, Myths and Magic Moments: Religious Elements on the Sacred Ground Gunter Gebauer 15. ‘Beckhamania’: Promoting Post-modern Celebrities Beyond the Stadium Johannes John 16. Conclusion: The Stadium – Lense and Refuge Sybille Frank and Silke Steets Sybille Frank and Silke Steets are sociologists working at the Darmstadt University of Technology, Germany

Selecting a vegetation layer design goes along with determining its future irrigation need. Therefore, it is essential to take a design decision that is minimising the cumulated construction and irrigation costs in a given depreciation period. This contribution showcases a decision support approach using long term weathering time series and soil water balances with example data for turf soccer fields in six German regions. The approach relies on minimising both material and irrigation costs by modifying soil layer design parameters; here the layer thickness and therefore its water retention capacity. E.g. suggested layer thicknesses between 200 and 250 mm for Stuttgart lead over 10–40 year depreciation periods to estimated substrate and water cost savings between 90 and 194% in comparison to a standard substrate layer thickness of 80 mm. For practical applications, the presented theoretical approach needs to be adapted with the usable soil water storage capacity and relationships describing evapotranspiration for given substrate-turfgrass combinations.

Areas polluted by the persistent presence of metal(loid)s induce health problems, especially when recreational activities (on land or water) promote human exposure to the pollutants. This study focuses on one of the most encountered worldwide mining waste, i.e. those from the extraction of Pb–Zn–Ag. The representative Pb–Zn-rich tailing (about 64,100 m³) sampled is located near a soccer field and a famous river for fishing. The scientific interests is relative to: (1) mobility and bioaccessibility of metal(oid)s, (2) human risk assessments and (3) relationship between human risks and solid-bearing phases in the environment. Soccer field soils, tailings and sediments from the nearby river were sampled; moreover, metal(loid) speciation (from BCR experiments) and bioaccessibility were measured and solid speciation performed by X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy in order to highlight metal(loid) dispersion and impact. Results demonstrate that the soccer field is highly contaminated by Pb, Zn, As and Sb due primarily to waste runoff. In terms of risk assessment, Pb and As human bioaccessibility highlights the major health risk (48 and 22.5 % of human bioaccessibility, respectively). Since local populations are regularly in close contact with metal(loid)s, the health risk due to pollutant exposure needs to be reduced through sustainable waste disposal and the rehabilitation of polluted sites.

One of the potential problems of volunteered geographic information (VGI) is ensuring its quality. Innocent mistakes and intentional falsehoods can reduce not only the quality of the information, but also people's confidence in VGI as a legitimate source of data. We present a case study in VGI that addresses the quality problem by aggregating input from many different people. Specifically, we present a technique to maintain a comprehensive list of points of interest (POI) for digital maps. This is traditionally difficult, because new POI are created, because some POI are known only locally, and because some POI have multiple names. We address this problem by exploiting map annotations contributed by regular, online map users. Our institution's mapping Web site allows users to create arbitrary collections of geo-graphically anchored pushpins that are annotated with text. Our data mining solution finds geometric clusters of these pushpins and examines the pushpins' text and other features for likely POI names. For instance, if a given text phrase is mentioned frequently in a cluster, but infrequently elsewhere, this increases our confidence that this phrase names a POI. We tested the quality of our results by asking 100 local residents whether or not the POI we found were correct, and our user study told us we were generally successful. We also show how we can use the same user-annotated pushpins to assess the popularity of existing POI, which is a guide for which ones to display on a map.

This study uses social movement concepts to explain the success and failure of actors in a network of relationships trying to influence policies on environmental issues in a small city. Results show that strategies to take action and mobilize others in a network of interorganizational relationships can vary depending on the social context, which consists of the political opportunity structure defined by government regulators, whether the actor faces opposition, and the actor's position in the network. Decisions to engage in strategies to try to influence government regulators directly, to use a broker to reach agreements with the opposition, or to form a coalition with actors in other organizations to influence government decision makers are affected by this social context. Results also show that even peripheral actors, usually assumed to be powerless in network studies, can influence policy if they use a direct-contact strategy and the political opportunity structure is favorable.