Soil after War as a Configurational Object of the Military Ecotone: Protocol for Developing a Theory for the Study of Soil Transformed by War. Version 1.0

Abstract

The protocol defines soil after war as a configurational object and as a component of a military ecotone. Soil becomes the soil of a military ecotone not when a particular military pollutant is detected in a laboratory, but when a war-induced change in the regime of a territory alters the conditions of its functioning, development, use, observation, and relations with other natural and anthropogenic systems. Military chemical pollution is an important but particular case of this transformation. The object is formed by the combination of pre-war history, military activity, functional inversion of the territory, addition of new substances and energy, destruction, cessation of previous impacts, reorganisation of land use, changes in water, biota, and human presence, and the subsequent trajectory. The protocol introduces a system of concepts for describing this object, proposes eight groups of indicators, a polygon-based research architecture, hypothesis–evidence relations, experimental and field testing tracks, and a specialised expert–AI information system. The final research result is defined as an open dynamic profile of soil as a component and active medium of the military ecotone. Standards, administrative permissions, and public perception are treated as separate layers that must not replace the real condition of the object.