Soils provide a set of primary functions of utmost importance in the urban ecosystems. However, the knowledge about urban soils is still fragmentary and rarely taken into account in describing the functioning and management of urban ecosystems. The goal of this session is to present our current state of understanding about the diversity, functioning, and evolution of urban soils and highlight their role as service providers in the cities in the context of global change (e.g. biomass production, climate regulation, water quality, biodiversity). This session is proposed in the frame of the working group SUITMA (Soils in Urban, Industrial, Traffic, Mining and Military Areas) of the International Union of Soil Science (IUSS), which was created in 1998 to increase soil science research and influence in urban and more generally strongly anthropized areas.