Issues and goals 247 environmental degradation and disaster management social science notes is the nonliving, known as abiotic which includes such items as sunlight, soil, air, water, land, climate etc. Yet slow but continued degradation can lead to virtually in reversible losses of resources from the ecosystem and the land will degrade beyond selfrepair or what we call destroyed or collapsed system. Introduction land degradation and biodiversity loss are among the most pressing environmental challenges facing humanity. Land degradation is a concept in which the value of the biophysical environment is affected by one or more combinations of human induced processes acting upon the land. Global drivers of land degradation and improvement. Environmental degradation is the deterioration of the environment through depletion of resources such as air, water and soil. Here you can download the free lecture notes of environmental studies pdf notes es pdf notes materials with multiple file links to download. A general definition of land degradation is presented by wasson 1987 as. Causes and impacts of land degradation and desertification. For example, it ic useless for one nation to establish standards for a particular form of land degradation when the nource of degradation originates in an area. Gis spatial modeling for land degradation assessment in tigray, ethiopia. Sustainable ways to reduce land degradation and desertification demand research and advocacy of sustainable land management practices. Land degradation and deforestation land degradation and deforestation. The decline in quantity and quality of soil it includes erosion by wind and water biological degradation loss of humus physical degradation loss of structure, permeability, compaction chemical degradation reduced fertility, salinisation, changing ph, toxicity if degradation is so severe that land becomes unusable it is termed desertification.
Any change that decreases productivity of the land land clearing poor land management practices 2 3. With increasing human population, trees around the world are cleared everyday to make way for agriculture in fertile lands to meet the increasing. Land degradation, as a threat to smallholders in the tropics, attracts less attention than other global challenges. In this report, land degradation is defined as a negative trend 4 in land condition, caused by direct or indirect humaninduced processes including anthropogenic 5 climate change, expressed as longterm reduction or loss of at least one of the following.
All of these factors will combine to create a very stable but very unproductive desert environment. Land degradation can go fast, as can be the case of deforestation or forest fires, but often land degradation is a very slow process. Land degradation and deforestation evergreen agriculture. Oecd glossary of statistical terms land degradation. Land degradation development is an international journal which seeks to promote rational study of the recognition, monitoring, control and rehabilitation of degradation in terrestrial environments. Land degradation is the reduction or loss of the biological or economic productivity and complexity of rainfed cropland, irrigated cropland, or range, pasture, forest or woodlands resulting from natural processes, land uses or other human activities and habitation patterns such as land contamination, soil erosion and the destruction of the vegetation cover. It is viewed as any change or disturbance to the land perceived to be deleterious or undesirable. Land degradation as the land use section earlier in this chapter shows, demands on the land for economic development and pressures from a burgeoning population are leading to unprecedented land use change. The eld conceptual framework classifies the drivers of land degradation into two categories. Ekiti state is enhanced because of high demand for wood fuel. Land degradation involves change in the properties of land and soil texture, color, grain size and its functions water holding capacity, infiltration, supporting plant life. Land degradation intruduction land degradation is a process in which the value of the biophysical environment is affected by a combination of humaninduced processes acting upon the land.
To fight this menace, india will convert degraded land of nearly 50 lakh 5 million hectares to fertile land in the next 10 years between 2021 and 2030. Soil degradation is a consequence of intensive land use management, which is assumed to be caused by human impact, poverty, and a response to economic opportunities at the global level lambin et al. Collectively, these contributions explicitly seek to understand not only the mechanisms responsible for the problem of land degradation but their social and economic implications, the means of. Land degradation is the major consequences of direct interference of human activities in the natural phenomenon. In addition, gaps between scientific understandings of land degradation and international policy regimes are problematic. Deterioration in the quality of land, its topsoil, vegetation, andor water resources, caused usually by excessive or inappropriate exploitation. In this report, land degradation is defined as a negative trend 4 in land condition, caused by direct or indirect humaninduced processes including anthropogenic. This book contains selected contributions from the sixth meeting of the international geographical unions commission on land degradation and desertification, held in perth, australia, in september 1999. Pdf land degradation control and its global environmental. Land degradation has occurred on about 30 % of global land area between 1982 and 2006 chap.
Poor land management practices include grazing of stock that has hard hooves, growing of crops that require large amounts of fertilisers and pesticides especially superphosphate and nitrogen. Pdf gis spatial modeling for land degradation assessment in. In 2015, land degradation neutrality is likely to become a global target through the united nations convention to combat desertification and. Some of these efforts center on reducing co 2 emissions from deforestation, since. In turn, unsustainable land use is driving land degradation. Land degradation is an important problem in ethiopia, with more than 85 % of the land degraded to various degrees. Poor land management practices include grazing of stock that has hard hooves, growing of crops that require large. Identifying drivers of land degradation in xilingol, china. Deforestation and climate change congressional research service summary efforts to mitigate climate change have focused on reducing carbon dioxide co 2 emissions into the atmosphere. The three degradation terms, environmental degradation, land degradation, and soil degradation, are defined as.
Land degradation and desertification a global crisis. The condition of the soil is one of the best indicators of land degradation. Land degradation is a change to land that makes it less useful for human beings. India is facing a severe problem of land degradation ie. Desertification affects the livelihoods of millions of people, as. It includes issues such as land degradation, deforestation, desertification, loss of biodiversity, land, water and air pollution, climate change, sea level rise and ozone depletion.
Land degradation is defined as the temporary or permanent decline in the productive capacity of the land, and the diminution of the productive potential, including its major land uses e. Economics of land degradation and improvement in ethiopia. Biophysical factors, such as precipitation, agroecological zones, land use and land cover, are classified as proximate drivers. This study is guided by the eld conceptual framework presented in chap. Information and translations of land degradation in the most comprehensive dictionary definitions resource on the web.
Issues in the australian environment land degradation 1 2. The causes of land degradation can be divided into natural hazards, direct causes, and underlying causes. A pure anthropogenic definition of land degradation is the loss of a sustained economic. Prem l sankhayan, ole hofstad, a villagelevel economic model of land clearing, grazing, and wood harvesting for subsaharan africa. While the update of the content of the internet database version is an ongoing activity, the pdf, and word versions currently available are snapshots of the internet database version as of december 2007. Effects of land degradation on agricultural activities. The change in the characteristic and quality of soil which adversely affect its fertility is called as degradation.
Land degradation food and agriculture organization of the united. Land degradation occurs in all kinds of landscapes over the world, but the drivers of land degradation vary from region to region. Intruduction land degradation is a process in which the value of the biophysical environment is affected by a combination of humaninduced processes acting upon the land. Environmental degradation is a process through which the natural environment is compromised in some way, reducing biological diversity and the general health of the environment. Land degradation is a process in which the value of the biophysical environment is affected by a combination of humaninduced processes acting upon the land. The environmental studies notes pdf es notes pdf book starts with the topics covering need for public awareness, natural resources and associated problems, structure and functions of an ecosystem. What is land degradation and how does it affect ecosystems. Recent estimates using satellite imagery show that land degradation hotspots over the last three decades cover about 23 % of the land area in the country.
Land degradation is harming the wellbeing of 32 billion people and the impact of its effects will only grow with time. Land degradation is a process in which the value of the physical environment is affected by a combination of humaninduced processes acting upon the land. The oecd glossary of statistical terms may be downloaded directly to your computer as either a pdf or word file. When the environment becomes less valuable or damaged, environmental degradation is said to occur. Land degradation can also lead to climate change and affect human health. This definition makes clear that a desertification is land degradation in the. This will create much drier soil, which in turn is more vulnerable to erosion and runoff. Soil degradation is, in itself, an indicator of land degradation. Soil mapping and process modeling for sustainable land use management, 2017.
Read this article to learn about the meaning, factors responsible, prevention and control measures of land degradation. Land degradation is the humaninduced loss of biodiversity. Effects and recommendations susan ilyin executive summary livestock in ethiopia has an important economic, functional, and cultural significance. However, if acted upon quickly, there is a possibility for land reclamation and reversal of desertification. Desertification has been defined as land degradation in arid, semiarid, and dry subhumid areas resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities11. This process can be entirely natural in origin, or it can be accelerated or caused by human activities. Land degradation has reduced the productivity of nearly onequarter of the global land surface, impacted the wellbeing of about 3. Identifying these drivers at the appropriate spatial scale is an essential prerequisite for developing and implementing appropriate areaspecific policies. The soil integrates a variety of important processes involving vegetation growth, overland flow of water, infiltration, land use and land management.
Pdf gis spatial modeling for land degradation assessment. Land degradation is defined as the longterm loss of ecosystem function and. Deforestation in agriculture accounts for 60% of global land degradation as well as about 30% of all manmade carbon emissions. The problem is more pronounced in least developing countries due to overdependence of natural resources for survival. Land degradation is a process in which the value of the biophysical environment is affected by. The result is a loss of land productivity with impacts on livelihoods and the. This can lead to unsustainable agricultural practices, further land degradation, exacerbated urban sprawl, and sociopolitical problems.
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