Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
4.9
3.2
Journals
Land
Special Issues
Land Degradation and Soil Mapping
share announcement

Land Degradation and Soil Mapping

A special issue of Land (ISSN 2073-445X). This special issue belongs to the section "Land – Observation and Monitoring".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 July 2024) | Viewed by 4717

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Zahn Münch

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department Geography and Environmental Studies, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch 7602, South Africa
Interests: land cover
Prof. Dr. Adriaan van Niekerk

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Centre for Geographical Analysis, Department of Geography & Environmental Studies, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch 7600, South Africa
Interests: agricultural applications of remotely sensed data (mostly multispectral and multitemporal imagery); e.g., crop type mapping and monitoring of salt accumulation; water use and crop conditions; land cover mapping; object-based image analysis (OBIA); machine learning
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Zama Eric Mashimbye

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Geography & Environmental Studies, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch 7600, South Africa
Interests: remote sensing of agriculture digital soil mapping; soil degradation; object-based remote sensing; hyperspectral remote sensing; land cover & land use dynamics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We invite you to submit your papers for publication in this Special Issue of Land, “Land Degradation and Soil Mapping”. Land degradation is viewed as a major threat to ecosystem functions and services. Its adverse local effects, coupled with negative environmental and social impacts, pose significant challenges to communities at both the local and global levels. Predictive soil maps generated using geospatial techniques are considered as one of the most effective representations of specific features of soil conditions.

This Special Issue aims to publish high-quality scientific contributions regarding land degradation and soil mapping on a local, regional, or global scale. It will contain theoretical/methodological advances and operational and applied studies, covering many disciplinary fields. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • Land degradation neutrality: mapping, measuring, and monitoring;
  • Digital soil mapping;
  • Desertification control;
  • Land use optimization;
  • Sustainable soil management practices.

Dr. Zahn Münch
Prof. Dr. Adriaan van Niekerk
Dr. Zama Eric Mashimbye
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
  • digital soil mapping
  • predictive mapping
  • land use management
  • soil management
  • sustainable agriculture
  • ecosystem restoration

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.

Published Papers (4 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

Jump to: Review

19 pages, 6216 KiB  
Article
Monitoring the Soil Copper of Urban Land with Visible and Near-Infrared Spectroscopy: Comparing Spectral, Compositional, and Spatial Similarities
by Yi Liu, Tiezhu Shi, Yiyun Chen, Zeying Lan, Kai Guo, Dachang Zhuang, Chao Yang and Wenyi Zhang
Land 2024, 13(8), 1279; https://doi.org/10.3390/land13081279 - 13 Aug 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 580
Abstract
Heavy metal contamination in urban land has become a serious environmental problem in large cities. Visible and near-infrared spectroscopy (vis-NIR) has emerged as a promising method for monitoring copper (Cu), which is one of the heavy metals. When using vis-NIR spectroscopy, it is [...] Read more.
Heavy metal contamination in urban land has become a serious environmental problem in large cities. Visible and near-infrared spectroscopy (vis-NIR) has emerged as a promising method for monitoring copper (Cu), which is one of the heavy metals. When using vis-NIR spectroscopy, it is crucial to consider sample similarity. However, there is limited research on studying sample similarities and determining their relative importance. In this study, we compared three types of similarities: spectral, compositional, and spatial similarities. We collected 250 topsoil samples (0–20 cm) from Shenzhen City in southwest China and analyzed their vis-NIR spectroscopy data (350–2500 nm). For each type of similarity, we divided the samples into five groups and constructed Cu measurement models. The results showed that compositional similarity exhibited the best performance (Rp2 = 0.92, RPD = 3.57) and significantly outperformed the other two types of similarity. Spatial similarity (Rp2 = 0.73, RPD = 1.88) performed slightly better than spectral similarity (Rp2 = 0.71, RPD = 1.85). Therefore, we concluded that the ranking of the Cu measurement model’s performance was as follows: compositional similarity > spatial similarity > spectral similarity. Furthermore, it is challenging to maintain high levels of similarity across all three aspects simultaneously. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Land Degradation and Soil Mapping)
►▼ Show Figures

Graphical abstract

21 pages, 18126 KiB  
Article
Dynamic Integrated Ecological Assessment along the Corridor of the Sichuan–Tibet Railway
by Cuicui Ji, Hengcong Yang, Xiangjun Pei, Xiaochao Zhang, Lichuan Chen, Dan Liang, Yiming Cao, Jianping Pan and Maolin Chen
Land 2024, 13(6), 857; https://doi.org/10.3390/land13060857 - 14 Jun 2024
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 647
Abstract
Engineering activities along the Sichuan–Tibet Railway (STR) could cause land degradation and threaten the surrounding ecological security. It is crucial to evaluate the integrated land ecology during and after the construction of this project. This study assesses the land ecology along the STR [...] Read more.
Engineering activities along the Sichuan–Tibet Railway (STR) could cause land degradation and threaten the surrounding ecological security. It is crucial to evaluate the integrated land ecology during and after the construction of this project. This study assesses the land ecology along the STR corridor from 2000 to 2022 using a transfer matrix, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), and the PSR-TOPSIS model. The main results are as follows: (1) The novel comprehensive ecological assessment process including nine indicators is feasible. (2) The high-quality land ecological, surface vegetation, and environmental regions were concentrated in Ya’an and Nyingchi, whereas the low-quality regions were situated in Qamdo and Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. (3) There was an overall decline in the integrated land ecological quality along the STR from 2000 to 2022. While it steadily improved in the Ya’an and Nyingchi regions from 2010 to 2022, it continued to decline around the Qamdo region. (4) The most degraded land-use type during the 22 years was grassland, and farmland was the most secure land-use type. Overall, spatial analyses and examinations of residue disposal sites suggested that these locations have negatively impacted integrated land ecology since the beginning of the STR construction project. Our findings have implications for preserving the ecological ecosystem and ensuring the sustainability of the STR construction project. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Land Degradation and Soil Mapping)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

18 pages, 5583 KiB  
Article
Soil Quality Evaluation for Cotton Fields in Arid Region Based on Graph Convolution Network
by Xianglong Fan, Pan Gao, Li Zuo, Long Duan, Hao Cang, Mengli Zhang, Qiang Zhang, Ze Zhang, Xin Lv and Lifu Zhang
Land 2023, 12(10), 1897; https://doi.org/10.3390/land12101897 - 10 Oct 2023
Viewed by 1189
Abstract
Accurate soil quality evaluation is an important prerequisite for improving soil management systems and remediating soil pollution. However, traditional soil quality evaluation methods are cumbersome to calculate, and suffer from low efficiency and low accuracy, which often lead to large deviations in the [...] Read more.
Accurate soil quality evaluation is an important prerequisite for improving soil management systems and remediating soil pollution. However, traditional soil quality evaluation methods are cumbersome to calculate, and suffer from low efficiency and low accuracy, which often lead to large deviations in the evaluation results. This study aims to provide a new and accurate soil quality evaluation method based on graph convolution network (GCN). In this study, soil organic matter (SOM), alkaline hydrolysable nitrogen (AN), available potassium (AK), salinity, and heavy metals (iron (Fe), copper (Cu), manganese (Mn), and zinc (Zn)) were determined and evaluated using the soil quality index (SQI). Then, the graph convolution network (GCN) was first introduced in the soil quality evaluation to construct an evaluation model, and its evaluation results were compared with those of the SQI. Finally, the spatial distribution of the evaluation results of the GCN model was displayed. The results showed that soil salinity had the largest coefficient of variation (86%), followed by soil heavy metals (67%) and nutrients (30.3%). The soil salinization and heavy metal pollution were at a low level in this area, and the soil nutrients and soil quality were at a high level. The evaluation accuracy of the GCN model for soil salinity/heavy metals, soil nutrients, and soil quality were 0.91, 0.84, and 0.90, respectively. Therefore, the GCN model has a high accuracy and is feasible to be applied in the soil quality evaluation. This study provides a new, simple, and highly accurate method for soil quality evaluation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Land Degradation and Soil Mapping)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Review

Jump to: Research

16 pages, 3710 KiB  
Review
Bibliometric Analysis of Land Degradation Studies in Drylands Using Remote Sensing Data: A 40-Year Review
by Diêgo P. Costa, Stefanie M. Herrmann, Rodrigo N. Vasconcelos, Soltan Galano Duverger, Washinton J. S. Franca Rocha, Elaine C. B. Cambuí, Jocimara S. B. Lobão, Ellen M. R. Santos, Jefferson Ferreira-Ferreira, Mariana Oliveira, Leonardo da Silva Barbosa, André T. Cunha Lima and Carlos A. D. Lentini
Land 2023, 12(9), 1721; https://doi.org/10.3390/land12091721 - 4 Sep 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1685
Abstract
Drylands are vast and face threats from climate change and human activities. Traditional reviews cannot capture interdisciplinary knowledge, but bibliometric analysis provides valuable insights. Our study conducted bibliometric research of scientific production on climate change and land degradation in drylands using remote sensing. [...] Read more.
Drylands are vast and face threats from climate change and human activities. Traditional reviews cannot capture interdisciplinary knowledge, but bibliometric analysis provides valuable insights. Our study conducted bibliometric research of scientific production on climate change and land degradation in drylands using remote sensing. We examined 1527 Scopus-indexed publications to identify geographic and thematic hotspots, extracting leading authors, journals, and institutions. China leads in publications, followed by the US, Germany, and Australia. The US has the highest citation count. Collaboration networks involve the US, China, and European countries. There has been an exponential increase in remote sensing of land degradation in drylands (RSLDD) publications since 2011. Key journals include “International Journal of Remote Sensing” and “Remote Sensing of Environment”. The analysis highlights the growing interest in the field, driven by Australia, the US, and China. Key areas of study are vegetation dynamics and land use change. Future perspectives for this scientific field involve promoting collaboration and exploring emerging technologies for comprehensive land degradation and desertification research. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Land Degradation and Soil Mapping)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-4
Back to TopTop