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Land for Balance: The Advanced Methods and Trends for Land...
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Land for Balance: The Advanced Methods and Trends for Land Degradation

A special issue of Land (ISSN 2073-445X). This special issue belongs to the section "Soil-Sediment-Water Systems".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2023) | Viewed by 8006

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Moncef Bouaziz

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Guest Editor
Institute for Mine Surveying and Geodesy, Freiberg University of Technology, 09599 Freiberg, Germany
Interests: land degradation; soil; remote sensing; GIS
Dr. Osunmadewa Babatunde

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Guest Editor
Institute for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Technische Universität Dresden, 01062 Dresden, Germany
Interests: land use&cover; remote sensing; soil ecosystem
Dr. Emna Medhioub

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Guest Editor
Faculty of Sciences, University of Gafsa, 2112 Gafsa, Tunisia
Interests: climate change; soil; precipitation; drought; GIS
Dr. Hamouda Aichi

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Higher School of Agriculture, Morgane, Carthage University, Carthage 1054, Tunisia
Interests: partial least squares; soil; sludge treatment; digital soil mapping; remote spectroscopy; remote sensing

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Land degradation is one of the main environmental and socioeconomic issues worldwide. It is a major threat to ecosystem functioning and services. Understanding global land degradation is essential to face challenges in accomplishing the purpose of Land for Balance. land degradation imposes a negative trend in land condition, triggered by direct and/or indirect human-induced practices. Therefore, assessment of land degradation sould cover the global status and trends in land degradation. This Special Issue will explore conceptual methods and models to assess and describe the complexity of land degradation.

Researchers, scholars and experts are welcome to share their research and findings in our Special Issue Land for Balance: The Advanced Methods and Trends for land degradation. The focuses of the proposed issue will include but not limited to:

  • Geospatial methods for land degradation assessment;
  • Human induced land degradation;
  • Monitoring towards land degradation neutrality;
  • Remote sensing for land degradation;
  • Degraded land in mining and post-mining areas;
  • Prevention and remediation of degraded soil;
  • Vegetation and biodiversity as indices for land degradation;
  • Soil pollutions and remediation;
  • Climate change and land degradation;
  • Socio-economic aspects in degraded land.

Manuscripts can be submitted until the proposed deadline 15.11.2022. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the Special Issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited.

Dr. Moncef Bouaziz
Dr. Osunmadewa Babatunde
Dr. Emna Medhioub
Dr. Hamouda Aichi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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. Land is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 2600 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

  • land degradation
  • ecosystem health
  • vegetation/soil
  • water
  • land use /land cover
  • remote sensing/GIS

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 2610 KiB  
Article
Precipitation Forecasting and Monitoring in Degraded Land: A Study Case in Zaghouan
by Okba Weslati, Moncef Bouaziz and Mohamed-Moncef Serbaji
Land 2023, 12(4), 738; https://doi.org/10.3390/land12040738 - 24 Mar 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 985
Abstract
The study aimed to forecast and monitor drought over degraded land based on monthly precipitation using the Seasonal Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (SARIMA) approach. Several statistical parameters to select the most appropriate model were applied. The results indicate that the SARIMA (1,1,1) (0,1,1)12 [...] Read more.
The study aimed to forecast and monitor drought over degraded land based on monthly precipitation using the Seasonal Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (SARIMA) approach. Several statistical parameters to select the most appropriate model were applied. The results indicate that the SARIMA (1,1,1) (0,1,1)12 is the most suitable for 1981 to 2019 CHIRPS time-series data. The combination of precipitation data and this approved model will subsequently be applied to compute, assess, and predict the severity of drought in the study area. The forecasting performance of the generated SARIMA model was evaluated according to the mean absolute percentage error (15%), which indicated that the proposed model showed high performance in forecasting drought. The forecasting trends showed adequate results, fitting well with the historical tendencies of drought events. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Land for Balance: The Advanced Methods and Trends for Land Degradation)
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22 pages, 11277 KiB  
Article
Soil Water Erosion Modeling in Tunisia Using RUSLE and GIS Integrated Approaches and Geospatial Data
by Mohamed Moncef Serbaji, Moncef Bouaziz and Okba Weslati
Land 2023, 12(3), 548; https://doi.org/10.3390/land12030548 - 24 Feb 2023
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2585
Abstract
Soil erosion is an important environmental problem that can have various negative consequences, such as land degradation, which affects sustainable development and agricultural production, especially in developing countries like Tunisia. Moreover, soil erosion is a major problem around the world because of its [...] Read more.
Soil erosion is an important environmental problem that can have various negative consequences, such as land degradation, which affects sustainable development and agricultural production, especially in developing countries like Tunisia. Moreover, soil erosion is a major problem around the world because of its effects on soil fertility by nutriment loss and siltation in water bodies. Apart from this, soil erosion by water is the most serious type of land loss in several regions both locally and globally. This study evaluated regional soil erosion risk through the derivation of appropriate factors, using the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE), which was applied to establish a soil erosion risk map of the whole Tunisian territory and to identify the vulnerable areas of the country. The RUSLE model considers all the factors playing a major role in erosion processes, namely the erodibility of soils, topography, land use, rainfall erosivity, and anti-erosion farming practices. The equation is, thus, implemented under the Geographic Information System (GIS) “Arc GIS Desktop”. The results indicated that Tunisia has a serious risk of soil water erosion, showing that 6.43% of the total area of the country is affected by a very high soil loss rate, estimated at more than 30 t/ha/year, and 4.20% is affected by high mean annual soil losses, ranging from 20 to 30 t/ha/year. The most eroded areas were identified in the southwestern, central, and western parts of the country. The spatial erosion map can be used as a decision support document to guide decision-makers towards better land management and provide the opportunity to develop management strategies for soil erosion prevention and control on the global scale of Tunisia. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Land for Balance: The Advanced Methods and Trends for Land Degradation)
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20 pages, 1784 KiB  
Article
Agro-Ecological Impact of Irrigation and Nutrient Management on Spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) Grown in Semi-Arid Conditions
by María José Delgado-Iniesta, Aldara Girona-Ruíz and Antonio Sánchez-Navarro
Land 2023, 12(2), 293; https://doi.org/10.3390/land12020293 - 19 Jan 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1253
Abstract
The environment is affected by most anthropogenic activities; among them, agriculture is one activity with more negative effects, especially when management is inadequate, causing soil degradation or contamination. This paper presents the results of an agronomic field trial on a spinach (Spinacia [...] Read more.
The environment is affected by most anthropogenic activities; among them, agriculture is one activity with more negative effects, especially when management is inadequate, causing soil degradation or contamination. This paper presents the results of an agronomic field trial on a spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) crop. The objective of which was to monitor soil and crop properties under two doses of irrigation and organic fertilization. The results showed that the use of excessive doses of irrigation and fertilization increased the electrical conductivity (ECext) from 5.5 to 8.5 dS m−1 and the concentration of ions in the soil solution which, for the most soluble ions (NO3−, Cl−, Na+), leached towards the deep horizons, reaching 2194.8 mg L−1 in the case of NO3−. However, their use did not increase spinach production and is thus a waste of resources that increases the risk of soil salinization. Nutrient inputs to the soil were much higher than extractions (between 12% for N and 99% for Fe), partly because of agronomic management and especially because of the return of crop residues, which increased the organic carbon stock by about 2500 kg ha−1 (4–6%), enhancing its function as a CO2 sink. These surpluses form part of complex organic structures or are immobilized as carbonates or alkaline phosphates. Preservation of the agrosystem studied requires limiting the use of low-quality irrigation water and adjusting fertilization. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Land for Balance: The Advanced Methods and Trends for Land Degradation)
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15 pages, 3229 KiB  
Article
A Study on Policy and Institutional Arrangements for Urban Green Space Development in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
by Bayarmaa Enkhbold and Kenichi Matsui
Land 2022, 11(12), 2205; https://doi.org/10.3390/land11122205 - 5 Dec 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2360
Abstract
Globally, authorities in rapidly growing cities have struggled to find sufficient green space for residents. Ulaanbaatar city of Mongolia has faced a similar situation due largely to drastically shrinking open land, especially after adopting a market-oriented economy in 1990. Amid the escalating urban [...] Read more.
Globally, authorities in rapidly growing cities have struggled to find sufficient green space for residents. Ulaanbaatar city of Mongolia has faced a similar situation due largely to drastically shrinking open land, especially after adopting a market-oriented economy in 1990. Amid the escalating urban congestion and growing concerns over pollution that ensued, the concept of urban green spaces began to gain more attention among Ulaanbaatar city officials. In 2014, the national government introduced the Green Development Policy to set aside 30% of the city’s residential area as green space by 2030. The Ulaanbaatar 2020 Master Plan and Development Approach for 2030 similarly set goals to increase green space per capita to 30 m2. However, the current share of green space in the city is only 1.8% and 0.12–5 m2/person. Most case studies on urban green space policies and institutional arrangements focus on large cities in European countries with a relatively low population growth rate compared to those in developing countries. Therefore, this paper attempts to understand why Ulaanbaatar has not been able to increase green space despite its ambitious policy goals for many years. To do so, we examined the policy documents and institutional arrangements. We also conducted personal interviews with government specialists. As a result, we found four main challenges: (1) actions to increase green space were weak; (2) action plans were not clearly laid out for government officials to follow; (3) where stakeholder coordination was needed, administrators did not have sufficient resources and frameworks to do so, and (4) promised plans were not financially feasible. Overall, these findings indicate a necessity to strengthen urban green space monitoring and sufficient budget mobilization. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Land for Balance: The Advanced Methods and Trends for Land Degradation)
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