This erosion is the dominant form of soil degradation troeh et al. The health of soil is a primary concern to farmers and the global community whose livelihoods depend on well managed agriculture that starts with the dirt beneath our feet. Estimates of global and regional land area affected are tentative and subjective. The present rate of land degradation is estimated at 5 to 7 million hectares per year, suggesting that 0. Food security issues, organic farming, land degradation, soil infertility and water exhaustive crops, sustainable agriculture has become buzz words these days. Value 1 this form of erosion is no longer visible after cultivation ploughing, hoeing etc. Land degradation land degradation is the deterioration in the quality of land. It encompasses physical soil erosion, chemical salinity and alkalinity, pollution and biological deterioration pollution and.
Both components lead to progressively lower crop yields, increased costs of production, and may end up in land abandonment and deserti. Second, because the focus on soil was too narrow while the term land refers to natural resources as a whole and that is the soil with its natural water, flora and fauna. The decline in quantity and quality of soil it includes erosion by wind and water biological degradation loss of humus physical degradation loss of structure, permeability, compaction chemical degradation reduced fertility, salinisation, changing ph, toxicity if degradation is so severe that land becomes unusable it is termed. Here, using an empirical model, we present a global and temporally explicit assessment of soil erosion risk according to recent 200120 dynamics of rainfall and vegetation cover change to identify. Soil erosion and land degradation are major causes for low productivity. Soil degradation by erosion request pdf researchgate. Environmental degradation is the deterioration of the environment through depletion of resources such as air, water and soil. Soil loss is so gradual that the erosion usually goes unnoticed, but the cumulative. These crops are unable to trap the soil as the forest did and so runoff increases. Soil degradation is an issue of growing concern in europe. Research by the economics of land degradation initiative in 2015 calculated that soil degradation is. Land use grass is the best natural soil protector against soil erosion because of its relatively dense cover.
Land and soil degradation assessments in mediterranean. Althoughtheaffected areas by salinity aremuch less than the onesaffected by other degradation processes like. Have a go at this quiz and test your knowledge of the causes and the effects of soil erosion and degradation. Soil erosion vocabulary soil erosion the wearing away of the land surface by water, wind, ice, gravity or other natural or anthropogenic agents that abrade, detach and remove soil particles or rock material from one point on the earths surface, for deposition elsewhere, including gravitational creep and socalled tillage erosion. Soil degradation by accelerated erosion is a serious problem and will remain so during the 21st century, especially in developing countries of the tropics and subtropics. Soil erosion is a natural process that occurs on all lands.
Show full abstract drought in dryland areas of the north, but also can be a result of extreme land degradation due to soil erosion superimposing on physical drought effect in southern humid. Soil degradation is any type of problem that removes soil in an area or makes highquality soil become poor. Degradation of land results in loss of crop production capacity of the land. Soil degradation is, in itself, an indicator of land degradation. Land degradation, soil erosion and soil conservation pmf ias. If accelerated erosion continues unabated, yield reductions by 2020 may be 87%. It is the fairly uniform removal of soil in thin layers from the land surface, often scarcely perceptible, especially when caused by wind. The yearly loss of productivity, and desertification of irrigated lands, amounts to 1.
Deforestation accounts for the major land degradation problem as it results in severe soil erosion, flood, and loss of fertile soil. The degraded soil does not support crop production and leads to low crop productivity. The world is losing 10 ha of arable land each minute5 ha to soil erosion, 3 ha from salinity, and 2 ha by. This section describes land degradation trends in kenya as an introduction to the following pairs of. It results in loss of the finest soil particles that contain most of the available nutrients and organic matter in the soil. Indicators of soil loss land degradation encompasses a vast array of biophysical and socioeconomic processes, which make its assessment difficult to encapsulate in a few simple measures. The productivity of some land in calabar south has declined by 60 percent as a result of soil erosion and nutrient loss bruinsma, 2003. Soil degradation needs to be recognised, alongside climate change, as one of the most pressing problems facing humanity. Yet, its extent, severity, and economic and environmental impacts are debatable. Erosion rate soil erosion soil loss sediment yield land degradation these keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. The soil integrates a variety of important processes involving vegetation growth, overland flow of water, infiltration, land use and land management. Gcse geography soil erosion and degradation damages.
This is indeed the most visible effect of soil degradation, but does not cover all of its aspects. Firstly because, besides erosion, more forms of land degradation are nowadays considered important. Soil erosion responds both to the total amount of rainfall and. Careless agricultural practices, pollution and deforestation cause lots of soil degradation in the world. Soil erosion and degradation research group, department of geography. Sustainable land use can help to reduce the impacts of agriculture and livestock, preventing soil degradation and erosion and the loss of valuable land to desertification. The identification of areas that are vulnerable to soil erosion can be helpful for improving our. Recommendations related to land use and soil erosion indicators. How is soil erosion evaluated in the land capability systems used in brazil. The study was carried out in masvingo province, zaka district, ward 5 with. The details of all publications are in the researchgate in full text pdf forms. This statement was evident from historical times, as a consequence of large plant cover changes linked to demographic and. Erosion control slope stabilization on slopes that are being eroded away, slowing down of surface water is needed. About to lose all the soil in zakas ward 5, zimbabwe.
Retrogression is primarily due to soil erosion and corresponds to a phenomenon where succession reverts the land to its natural physical state. As climate change and land degradation combine, delivery of these multiple. Pdf on apr 9, 2014, velibor spalevic and others published land degradation, land use and soil erosion. Merging remote and insitu land degradation indicators in soil erosion control. Soil retrogression and degradation are two regressive evolution processes associated with the loss of equilibrium of a stable soil. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves. Land degradation process land degradation type degree of problem land form land use water erosion w sheet erosion sh slight 1 hill and mountainous 15% slope undulating 515% slope plain 05% slope valley agriculture forest plantation open scrub rills ri moderate 2 gullies gu severe 3. Initially, although it was already recognized in principle that land degradation involved complex interactions between physical and socioeconomic process domains e. Effects of soil erosion on soil properties as related to. T value tolerable erosion equilibrium between soil gains and losses. According to a united nationsbacked study, a third of the planets land is severely degraded and fertile soil is being lost at the rate of 24 billion tonnes a year. Land degradation here mainly refers to the loss of lifesupporting land resource through soil erosion, desertification, salinization, acidification, etc.
Water erosion the widespread occurrence of water erosion. In places of high rainfall, as the former rainforest is, a single season can be enough to leave the soil completely unable to support plant growth. But, in the field, further variables are used as indicators of the occurrence of soil degradation. Solutions need to be developed and introduced which address both issues simultaneously. Photograph of a compacted zone of soil immediately below the plough layer in a cropping soil.
Soil erosion is a natural process in mountainous areas, but is often made much worse by poor management practices. Soil is subject to a series of induced degradation processes, which humannamely are displacement of soil material, and internal soil deterioration dwivedi, 2002. Soil degradation article about soil degradation by the. Sheet erosion sheet erosion is the removal of soil in thin layers by raindrop impact and shallow surface flow. This factsheet looks at the causes and effects of water, wind and tillage erosion on agricultural land. Soil erosion is a common term that is often confused with soil degradation as a whole, but in fact refers only to absolute soil losses in terms of topsoil and nutrients. Soil tillage is the principle cause of degradation of cropped. Soil degradatio n is when soil deteriorates because. This is the case in several parts of africa or asia or for land uses such as urban areas. This report has been prepared by rivm, eftec, ntua and. To accomplish this installation of devices meant to slow down the water is needed. Presently, reduction of land in calabar due to past soil erosion range from 5579% percent with a mean loss of 67%. Eastern africa including ethiopia has experienced moderate to severe land degradation problems as shown in. View soil erosion and land degradation research papers on academia.
It happens over many spatial scales from the site of impact of a. Several types of soil degradation exist and are a threat to natural forests and planted crops. Technical report on soil degradation4,qwurgxfwlrq the issue of soil degradation ranges from erosion and contamination of the topsoil to overabstraction and contamination of ground water. This term previously designated the podzolization of chernozems under the influence of forest vegetation. Land degradation indicators and management options. Land degradation is a process in which the value of the biophysical environment is affected by a combination of humaninduced processes acting upon the land. Soil erosion occurs when soil is removed through the action of wind and water at a greater rate than it is formed. It is viewed as any change or disturbance to the land perceived to be deleterious or undesirable.
Global vulnerability of soil ecosystems to erosion. Merging remote and insitu land degradation indicators in soil erosion control system. Among the factors explaining the intensity of soil erosion, plant cover and land uses are considered the most important, exceeding the influence of rainfall intensity and slope gradient thornes, 1990, kosmas et al. As indicated by the classification in table 121, the texture of these soils is similar to fayette soils, but these soils differ by having a fragipan. Degradation is an evolution, different from natural evolution, related to the local climate and vegetation. In turn, unsustainable land use is driving land degradation. Request pdf soil degradation by erosion soil degradation by.
Degradation cont population pressure and human activities such as overcultivation which exhausts the soil, overgrazing which removes the vegetation cover that protects soil from erosion, deforestation which removes trees and vegetation which binds the soil to the. Soil erosion is one of the most widespread forms of land degradation resulting from such changes in land use. Soil erosion is the loosening and displacement of topsoil particles from the land. Break up of soil clodsaggregates and dispersion of soil particles by the kinetic. Assessing soil erosion although soil erosion has been taking place very slowly in natural ecosystems throughout geologic time, its cumulative impacts on soil quality over billions of years have been significant. Trafficking by animals as well as by vehicles and cultivation are the primary causes of this form of soil degradation. Soil erosion is one of the main threats driving soil degradation across the globe with important impacts on crop yields, soil biota, biogeochemical cycles, and ultimately human nutrition. Thus the term podzolized chernozems is now used in soil classifications. Compaction compaction is where soil particles pack together increasing soil density and reducing pore space. Basic soil erosion and types university of wisconsin. Soil erosion removes the top fertile layer of the soil.
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