Sustainability

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Dear Colleagues,

The monitoring of environmental features is a key issue in the sustainable management of land resources, where the increasing availability of temporal and spatial soil data plays a fundamental role. Remote sensing and GIS (geographic information system) applications enable efficient handling of these data with the aim of developing predictive and sound models to reduce land degradation and soil erosion. There is a need to further improve studies of soil dynamics in different environmental biosystems to gain more insights into erosion processes and the effectiveness of conservation measures that contribute to the currently perceived new and modern sustainable practices.

In addition, new insights and perspective studies on soil dynamics offer great potential to better understand how soil erosion is related to natural disasters such as landslides, floods, slope instability, biodiversity loss, and climate change.

The aim of this Special Issue is to contribute to a better description of the most popular research direction in spatial data analysis of soil, focusing on the following topics:

Applications of remote sensing and GIS to detect and monitor soil properties;
Land use and sustainable soil management practices;
Linking soil erosion and natural disasters (e.g., landslides, floods, earthquakes);
Modelling sediment transport in rivers;
Transport of river sediments modeling;
Monitoring and assessment of soil erosion in agriculture and forestry.

Dr. Antonio Ganga
Dr. Blaž Repe
Dr. Mario Elia
Guest Editors

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

GIS
soil science
spatial analysis
soil properties detection
geostatistics
remote sensing

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 26369 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Changes in Land Use and Cover and Their Environmental Impacts in the Cerrado of Mato Grosso Do Sul, Brazil

by Melina Fushimi, Gabriela Narcizo de Lima and Viviane Capoane

Sustainability 2024, 16(10), 4266; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16104266 - 18 May 2024

Viewed by 439

Abstract

In Brazilian regional landscapes, the Cerrado has one of the richest flora among the savannas in the world, with a high level of endemism; however, many plant species are threatened with extinction as a consequence of spatio-temporal changes in land use and cover. This study aimed to analyze changes in land use and cover in the upper course of the Ceroula stream basin, located in the Cerrado of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, based on maps of land use and cover in 1985 and 2022, the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), precipitation data, and fieldwork. The results indicated that in 1985, forest vegetation was replaced by pasture, and in 2022, in addition to pasture, there was the introduction of soybean monoculture with corn in the off-season, influenced by the international commodities market. These land use and cover alterations, without adequate management and in the absence of conservation practices, led to environmental impacts, such as accelerated linear erosive processes (rill, ravine, and gully). The results may help provide important insights into the dynamics of land use and cover, the consequences of the lack of conservation practices, and the environmental impacts in the Cerrado of Mato Grosso do Sul, contributing to better understanding of the environmental challenges faced in the region and the need to provide subsidies for the development of sustainable management strategies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of GIS and Remote Sensing in Soil Environment Monitoring 2nd Edition)

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18 pages, 6400 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Vegetation–Lake–Sand Landscape of Northeast China Sandy Land between 1980 and 2022: Pattern, Evolution, and Driving Forces

by Weiyi Lu, Geer Teni and Huishi Du

Sustainability 2024, 16(8), 3382; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16083382 - 18 Apr 2024

Viewed by 679

Abstract

Northeast China’s sandy region is an arid and semi-arid zone highly susceptible to climate change. Investigating the long-term changes in the Northeast China sandy land (Northeast China sandy land, DBSL) landscape can provide an important basis for the ecological restoration of this region. This study analyzed long-term remote sensing data of the DBSL from 1980 to 2022 and explored the spatial pattern, evolution, and driving mechanisms. In 2022, vegetation was mainly distributed in the northwest, center, and southwest, covering a total area of 30,508.82 km². Areas with high and medium vegetation cover showed strong aggregation characteristics and were mainly distributed in the southwest, whereas those with low vegetation coverage were highly dispersed and widely distributed in the central region. Lakes were widely distributed in the northwest and central regions, with a total area of 2736.43 km². In the last 42 years, the vegetation cover decreased by 24.48%. Areas with high and medium vegetation coverage decreased in size, and those with low vegetation coverage first increased and then decreased, with overall decreases of 35.35%, 19.16%, and 6.88%, respectively. The overall area of the DBSL showed various degrees of degradation. Shrinking and dry lakes were concentrated in the sandy hinterland. The lake landscape changed significantly from 1990 to 2010, with a decrease in lake area of 27.41%. In contrast, the sandy area increased by 25.65%, indicating a high degree of desertification. However, from 2005 to 2022, desertification decelerated. The most important factors driving the evolution of the DBSL were socio-economic factors. The increase in human disturbance will have a certain impact on the landscape changes in the region in the short term. The national policy of returning farmland to fields and grasslands will affect the increase of vegetation and lake landscape area in the short term, and the sand area and excessive animal husbandry will be reduced. This study provides a scientific basis for ecological restoration and sustainable development in Northeast China. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of GIS and Remote Sensing in Soil Environment Monitoring 2nd Edition)

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