Soil Erosion, Mass Movements and Pedoclimatic Disequilibrium in Aggradational Landforms

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue seeks to gather original contributions that focus on soil erosion, mass movements, and pedoclimatic disequilibrium in aggradational landforms. These themes are central to addressing the critical environmental challenges of the 21st century, with far-reaching implications for both rural and urban sustainability, ecosystem health, and the protection of human lives and material assets. The accelerating pace of surface processes driven by rapid environmental change presents complex challenges due to their unpredictable nature and substantial contributions to soil loss and land degradation. In particular, soil covers in tropical regions are often remnants of ecological conditions that differ from the current landscape, making them particularly prone to destabilization under contemporary socio-environmental pressures, especially in the context of large-scale commercial agriculture encroachment.

This Special Issue will deal with the pivotal role of soil erosion, recognized as one of the leading causes of land degradation through the removal of the fertile topsoil at alarming rates. The conversion of original vegetation for agricultural purposes serves as a primary triggering factor. We invite contributions that explore the various forms of erosion—such as sheet, rill, and gully erosion—supported by case studies from diverse global landscapes. We also welcome discussions on the responses of soil covers formed on quaternary aggradational landforms to extreme meteorological events, highlighting the need for adaptive management strategies.

Mass movements, or mass wasting, represent the gravitational movement of soil and rock materials, often occurring independently from the influences of water or ice. The dynamics of mass wasting are significantly affected by human activities that alter hillslope stability in both rural and urban settings. Recent shifts in precipitation patterns further exacerbate these challenges, making it urgent to understand and address their implications. Moreover, soil imbalances arising from altered precipitation patterns, rising temperatures, and carbon cycling changes can severely impact soil structure, function, fertility, and plant growth, with direct consequences for food production systems.

This Special Issue will also address how contemporary conditions, including increasing temperatures and intensified precipitation, affect soil covers on aggradational landforms inherited from past environmental and landscape arrangements, such as dunes, sand sheets, paleo-alluvial plains, and colluvial hillslopes. Such insights are vital for predicting landscape changes, assessing land degradation, and implementing sustainable practices for mitigation and reclamation.

We invite submissions that comprehensively address soil erosion, mass movements, and pedoclimatic disequilibrium in depositional landforms, encompassing their causes, consequences, and mitigation strategies. Potential topics may include, but are not limited to, surveying, monitoring, modeling, assessment, prognosis, land reclamation, mitigation strategies, and instrumentation, applicable in both field and laboratory settings. We look forward to your valuable contributions.

Prof. Dr. Antônio José Teixeira Guerra
Prof. Dr. Antonio Carlos de Barros Correa
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Soil Systems 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 1800 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.