Soils are a natural valuable resource with peculiar filtering, buffering and energy transforming properties, a reserve of genes and groundwater, a source of plant nutrition and a basis of human activities. The soil quality must be preserved and its sustainable use encouraged. However, the increased concentration and distribution of potentially toxic substances (PTS) in soils by mismanagement of industrial and mining activities, increasing traffic , overuse of agrochemicals and waste disposal are causing worldwide concern. But the monitoring of the soil quality and the assessment of the PTS is difficult sometimes , because their toxicity not only depends on their concentration but also on their form or species. Moreover the soil system is heterogeneus, varied, and spacially and temporally (i.e. drying and wetting cycles) dynamic. This complexity means that the monitoring, assessment and reclamation of polluted soils (both localized and diffused pollution) is not easy. New data about the fate and behaviour of pollutants in different soil types are necessary, especially from remote areas or with scarce information. Further studies about local baseline and threshold values of pollutants are urgent. Innovative field and laboratory methods, including new experiments and modelisation that provide credible data are desirable to obtain realistic results in situ, on site and ex situ technologies. Obviously, if possible, the friendly and economic methodologies of site reclamation (i.e. bioremediation and phytoremediation) would be preferable. This Session is focused on the most recent findings, state of the art developments in the knowledge of the origin and modalities of soil pollution, monitoring and assessment as well as experiments and applications for reclamation of polluted soils. We welcome theoretical and applied methodologies, experimental laboratory and field works leading to new data. We look forward to a lively Oral and Poster Session. Furthermore, we hope to publish the outcome of this Session in a Special Issue of an International Indexed Journal.