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Environmental degradation assessment in arid areas: a case study from Basra Province, southern Iraq

Journal Articles & Books
December, 2013
Iraq

Evaluation of recent land degradation affecting Basra Province, Iraq, resulted in the identification of five prominent environmental degradation processes: desertification, secondary salinization, urbanization, vegetation degradation, and loss of wetlands.

COST action ES1104 “Arid lands restoration and combat of desertification: Setting up a drylands and desert restoration hub”

Journal Articles & Books
December, 2015
Europe

This paper briefly describes COST Action ES1104 “Arid lands restoration and combat of desertification: Setting up a drylands and desert restoration hub”. (COST - European Cooperation in Science and Technology) is one of the longest running European frameworks supporting cooperation among scientists and researchers across Europe.) This networking project’s focus is to provide a hub of knowledge particularly relating to the practical methods of vegetation establishment and restoration as well as sustainable land management in arid and dryland areas.

Quantifying the synergistic effect of the precipitation and land use on sandy desertification at county level: A case study in Naiman Banner, northern China

Journal Articles & Books
December, 2013
China

Assessing the driving forces of sandy desertification is fundamental and important for its control. It has been widely accepted that both climatic conditions and land use have great impact on sandy desertification in northern China. However, the relative role and synergistic effect of each driving force of sandy desertification are still not clear. In this paper, an indicator named as SI was defined to represent the integrated probability of sandy desertification caused by land use.

Temporal-spatial variability of desertification in an agro-pastoral transitional zone of northern Shaanxi Province, China

Journal Articles & Books
December, 2012
China

Desertification has been widely treated as one of the major environmental hazards in the world by scientific communities and the public. Monitoring the dynamics and causes of desertification is essential to provide important instruction for desertification control strategies and rational planning of land use in arid and semi-arid areas.

Evolution of major environmental geological problems in karst areas of Southwestern China

Journal Articles & Books
December, 2013
China

Karst terrains are generally regarded as a fragile and vulnerable environment. China’s karst is mainly developed in pre-Triassic, old-phase, hard, compact carbonate rock. The lack of soil cover in bare karst land can enhance desertification. Its underground drainage system can aggravate both drought and flooding problems; the interconnected surface and subsurface conditions allow for easy contamination by pollutants.

Carbon sequestration in dryland ecosystems of West Asia and North Africa

Journal Articles & Books
December, 2002
Africa
Northern Africa

The West Asia–North Africa (WANA) region has a land area of 1.7 billion ha, and a population of 600 million. Desertification and soil degradation are severe problems in the region. The problem of drought stress is exacerbated by low and erratic rainfall and soils of limited available water holding capacity and soil organic carbon (SOC) content of less than 0.5 per cent. The SOC pool of most soils has been depleted by soil degradation and widespread use of subsistence and exploitative farming systems.

social and environmental challenges faced by goat and small livestock local activities: Present contribution of research-development and stakes for the future

Journal Articles & Books
December, 2011

Small livestock (goats, sheep, llamas, camels…) like other agricultural activities could have to face dramatic social, economical and environmental challenges. These challenges are identified underlining that these activities are often important and well present in countries with low incomes or in less favored areas. Although they are often low input production systems with lower environmental impacts, they face desertification and less water availability, genetic erosion, soil degradation and degradation of rangelands, competitions for land use.

Rangeland development of the Mu Us Sandy Land in semiarid China: an analysis using Landsat and NOAA remote sensing data

Journal Articles & Books
December, 2003
China

Degradation of the dry semiarid ecosystems in the Mu Us Sandy Land of north central China was explored using high-resolution satellite images from 1978, 1987 and 1996. This study monitored both changes in grassland biomass production and reclamation activities to detect the nature and scale of land degradation since major economic reforms were introduced in 1978. The position of the high-resolution images within the vegetation cycles was inspected from National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) NDVI images at 10-day repetition and seasonal precipitation patterns.

Toward a ‘Sustainable’ land degradation? Vulnerability degree and component balance in a rapidly changing environment

Journal Articles & Books
December, 2014
Italy

Land degradation is a process negatively affecting environmental sustainability and requires permanent monitoring for understanding its nonlinear trajectories of change over time and space. Environmental sustainability is linked to a theoretical definition of dynamic balance among various components contributing to the ecosystem quality and functioning.

Post-Wildland fire Desertification: Can Rehabilitation Treatments Make a Difference

Journal Articles & Books
December, 2009

Desertification, caused by land degradation as opposed to the immediate creation of classical deserts, is of prime concern in the 21st century. As a result of human activities and climate change, the land loses its proper hydrologic function and biological productivity. Desertification affects 33 % of the earth's surface and over a billion people. Fire-related desertification has a number of environmental, social, and economic consequences. The two key environmental consequences are soil erosion and non-native plant invasions. Erosion after wildland fires can be in the range of