Processes of land degradation and regeneration display fine scale heterogeneity often intimately linked with land use. Yet, examinations of the relationships between land use and land degradation often lack the resolution necessary to understand how...
Understanding past landscape changes is crucial to promote agroecological landscape transitions. This study analyzes past land cover changes (LCCs) alongside subsequent degradation and improvements in the study area. The input land cover (LC) data we...
The present study aims to provide a method for extending the scope of empirical landscape studies into the more distant past and to use it to contribute to the discourse on land degradation in the Mediterranean area. In many areas of the world, the l...
Research Highlights: Landscape approach principles were developed to address competing claims on resources at local scales. We used the principles to address agricultural expansion in Ghana’s forest reserves. Background and Objectives: Agricult...
Tropical forests are among the most diverse ecosystems in the world, completed by huge biodiversity. An expansion in natural resource extraction through open-pit mining activities leads to increasing land and tropical forest degradation. Proper scien...
Ecological restoration has become an important tool for mitigating and adapting to environmental degradation caused by global urbanization. However, current research has focused on single indicators and qualitative analysis, meaning that ecological r...
In recent years, remote sensing and geographic information systems (GISs) have become essential tools for effective landscape management. This study utilizes these technologies to analyze land use and land cover (LULC) changes in Dibru-Saikhowa Natio...
Since the 1970s, certain areas within the Three-Rivers Headwater Region (TRHR) of China have faced severe land degradation due to the combined effects of climate change and human activities, leading to restricted ecological service functions and hind...
Vineyards have assumed a key role as rural landmarks in recent decades. Investigating vineyard dynamics and contexts may reveal various economic, cultural, and environmental aspects of rural landscapes, which can be linked to land-use changes and maj...
Agricultural terraces are critical landscape elements that promote sustainable rural development by enhancing water retention, mitigating soil erosion, and conserving cultural heritage. In northeastern Türkiye, particularly in the mountainous Er...
At the sub-national level, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) proposes the analysis and contextualization of land degradation-neutrality (LDN) at a water catchment scale to provide decision support for the formulation of...
Arid and semi-arid landscapes often show a patchwork of bare and vegetated spaces. Their heterogeneous patterns can be of natural origin, but may also indicate soil degradation. This study investigates the use of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) imagery...
Soil erosion is one of the major natural risk factors for developing high-value crops and an accurate estimation of spatial distribution and rates of soil degradation can be crucial to prevent crop degradation. In this paper, we use comparisons betwe...
The temperate forests of northern Mexico possess a great diversity of unique and endemic species, with the greatest associations of pine-oak in the planet occurring within them. However, the ecosystems in this region had experienced an accelerated fr...
Shangri-La is located in the eastern part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, which has a fragile ecology. The plateau grassland has suffered from irreversible degradation under the influence of human activities. To address this issue, the Sentinel-2A data...
This study investigates the legal and planning risks related to the implementation of individual recreational buildings in environmentally valuable areas, with particular emphasis on the municipality of Bukowina Tatrzańska in southern Poland. Th...
Land use and land cover change constitute a significant driver of land degradation worldwide, and machine-learning algorithms are providing new opportunities for effectively classifying land use and land cover changes over time. The aims of this stud...
An increasing amount of Brazilian rainforest is being lost or degraded for various reasons, both anthropogenic and natural, leading to a loss of biodiversity and further global consequences. Especially in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, soy produ...
This study aims to develop a workflow methodology for collecting substantial amounts of Earth Observation data to investigate the effectiveness of landscape restoration actions and support the implementation of the Above Ground Carbon Capture indicat...
Agricultural terraces are important artificial landforms on the Loess Plateau of China and have many ecosystem services (e.g., agricultural production, soil and water conservation). Due to the loss of rural labor, a large number of agricultural terra...
The development of low-cost and relatively simple tools to identify emerging land degradation across complex regions is fundamental to plan monitoring and intervention strategies. We propose a procedure that integrates multi-spectral satellite observ...
Land degradation affects a significant portion of the Earth’s ice-free land area and several countries have embraced the challenge of restoring large parts of their degraded lands. Success in these efforts depends on various factors, including...
One of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal’s (SDGs) aims is to enhance access to clean energy. In addition, other SDGs are directly related to the restoration of degraded soils to improve on-farm productivity and land management. In...
Tufa sedimentary systems are sensitive fluvial landscapes subject to various external disturbances. Tufa landscape degradation reflected in negative hydrological changes and a decrease in the intensity of the tufa formation process have been detected...
Land-take leads to the loss of natural and semi-natural areas. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development highlights the important role played by land-take and degradation mitigation to promote sustainable cities. This research aims to assess (1) th...
Hydropower is expanding globally and is regarded a key measure for mitigating climate change, but it also results in major environmental degradation, both at local scale and more widely. We can learn lessons about how restoration can be used to allev...
Extensive geographic areas of the world show a long-term atmospheric moisture deficit. Desertification of Rajasthan is concurrent with the strengthened weather extremality and mean annual air temperature (MAAT) rise over the western part of the India...
Karst regions are peculiar due to their environmental and ecological features and hold a rich abundance of natural resources; nonetheless, they represent one of the most endangered areas in the world as a result of human activity. Further, urbanizati...
25 February 2022
The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) assumes spatial disparities in land resources as a key driver of soil degradation and early desertification processes all over the world. Although regional divides in soil quality have b...
Assessment and reporting of changes in vegetation condition at site and landscape scales is critical for land managers, policy makers and planers at local, regional and national scales. Land management, reflecting individual and collective values, is...
Climate change and the degradation of permafrost prove to be severe challenges for humanity. At present, the northern communities and those living in rural areas are already facing the consequences. This article is based on field research conducted i...
When restoring degraded landscapes, approaches capable of striking a balance between improving environmental services and enhancing human wellbeing need to be considered. Agroforestry is an important option for restoring degraded land and associated...
Serious soil degradation due to human intervention in subtropical China has resulted in a series of ecological problems. Soil fauna is an important part of forest soil ecosystems and plays a vital role in the maintenance of soil quality and can sensi...
The influx of nearly a million refugees from Myanmar’s Rakhine state to Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, in August 2017 put significant pressure on the regional landscape leading to land degradation due to biomass removal to provide shelter and f...
Climate-driven permafrost thaw alters the strongly coupled carbon and nitrogen cycles within the Arctic tundra, influencing the availability of limiting nutrients including nitrate (NO3−). Researchers have identified two primary mechanisms that...
In recent decades, human activities have impaired the structure, function, and diversity of coastal wetland ecosystems, and there is a need for the rational planning of ecological restoration to curb wetland degradation. However, the challenge remain...
North American beavers (Castor canadensis) are responsible for the major changes in the Tierra del Fuego Archipelago, altering riparian forests for the long-term. Passive restoration of the areas affected was ineffective in the medium-term (up to 20...
Hillside systems are key centers of ecological and cultural diversity, providing humanity with goods (e.g., food) and vital services (e.g., prevention of landslides) and sustaining 25% of terrestrial biodiversity. However, historical land use practic...
Anthropogenic activities such as logging or forest conversion into agricultural lands are affecting Ecuadorian Amazon forests. To foster private and communal conservation activities an economic incentive-based conservation program (IFC) called Socio...
Urban tree diversity plays a crucial role in enhancing the resilience of cities by contributing to ecosystem services such as mitigating the effects of land degradation, combating urban heat islands, improving air quality, and fostering biodiversity...
The loss of ecosystem services through land degradation continues to be a significant concern for policymakers and land users around the world. Facilitating collective action among various actors is regarded as imperative in halting land degradation....
The savannas of Southern Africa are an important dryland ecosystem as they cover up to 54% of the landscape and support a rich variety of biodiversity. This paper evaluates landscape change in savanna vegetation along Chobe Riverfront within Chobe Na...
The Anti-Atlas is subject to an intense rural exodus. The agricultural terraces built for several centuries have been abandoned. They are gradually deteriorating. The risks of runoff and erosion are becoming significant. The objective was to study th...
Carbon stock is an important indicator of cumulative ecosystem productivity. Using this indicator, and based on field sampling data, this paper compared the long-term difference in carbon stocks between aerial seeding (AS) and natural regeneration (N...
The small Mediterranean islands, unique geographical places where coastlines and mountains converge due to volcanic genesis, are among the most threatened environments on Earth. Their marginality, which has historically led to their use as places of...
Gold mining is an activity that has developed in Colombia due to the great availability of mineral resources geographically distributed throughout the territory. The extraction techniques used are linked to the domain of illegality and to armed actor...
Agricultural expansion has eliminated a high proportion of native land cover and severely degraded remaining native vegetation. Managers must determine where degradation is severe enough to merit restoration action, and what action, if any, is necess...
Wind erosion is the leading cause of soil degradation and air pollution in many regions of the world. As wind erosion is controlled by climatic factors, research on this phenomenon is urgently needed in soil and land management in order to better ada...
About two billion rural individuals depend on agricultural systems associated with a high amount of risk and low levels of yield in the drylands of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Human activities, climate change and natural extreme events are the m...
This study aimed at (i) developing, evaluating and comparing the performance of support vector machines (SVM), boosted regression trees (BRT), random forest (RF) and logistic regression (LR) models in mapping gully erosion susceptibility, and (ii) de...
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