This paper examines the implications of adopting catchment scale approaches for the sustainable management of land and water systems. Drawing on the findings of an interdisciplinary study examining how farm management practices impact on the loss of faecal indicator organisms (FIOs) and potential pathogens from land to water, the paper argues that the overwhelming focus on integration at the catchment level may risk ignoring the sub-catchment as an equally appropriate unit of hydrological analysis.

In the anthropogenic fire-disturbed ecosystem of the San Francisco Valley in the Andes of southeastern Ecuador, dense stands of an aggressive invasive weed, the southern bracken fern (Pteridium arachnoideum and Pteridium caudatum), dominate the landscape. To secure sustainable land management in the region, a comprehensive understanding of bracken spatial-distribution patterns and life cycle dynamics is crucial.

We compared the properties of the clay mineral fraction and the composition of soil solutions in a Fagus sylvatica coppice (native forest) and four adjacent plantations of Pseudotsuga menziesii, Pinus nigra, Picea abies and Quercus sessiliflora planted in 1976. The results revealed changes of clay fraction properties due to tree species effect. Clay samples from Douglas fir and pine stands differ when compared to other species.

Scenario analysis constitutes a valuable deployment method for scientific models to inform environmental decision-making, particularly for evaluating land degradation mitigation options, which are rarely based on formal analysis. In this paper we demonstrate such an assessment using the PESERA–DESMICE modeling framework with various scenarios for 13 global land degradation hotspots.

Examples of sustainable land management (SLM) exist throughout the world. In many cases, SLM has largely evolved through local traditional practices and incremental experimentation rather than being adopted on the basis of scientific evidence. This means that SLM technologies are often only adopted across small areas. The DESIRE (DESertIfication mitigation and REmediation of degraded land) project combined local traditional knowledge on SLM with empirical evaluation of SLM technologies.

Managing land sustainably is a huge challenge, especially under harsh climatic conditions such as those found in drylands. The socio-economic situation can also pose challenges, as dryland regions are often characterized by remoteness, marginality, low-productive farming, weak institutions, and even conflict. With threats from climate change, disputes over water, competing claims on land, and migration increasing worldwide, the demands for sustainable land management (SLM) measures will only increase in the future.

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.

The overexploitation of natural resources, resulting in an increased need for arable lands by local populations, causes a serious dysfunction in the soil's biological functioning (mineral deficiency, salt stress, etc.). This dysfunction, worsened by the climatic conditions (drought), requires the implementation of ecological engineering strategies allowing the rehabilitation of degraded areas through the restoration of essential ecological services.

In any watershed, many factors influence land use/cover change (LUCC). The nonlinear relationships between these factors and LUCC are very complicated and make it difficult to build a model that is capable of accurately simulating the range of physical processes. The aim of this study was: (1) to simplify the structure of a simulation model and improve its simulation speed, and (2) evaluate the impact of land use/cover change on surface runoff and evapotranspiration.

Increasing soil degradation in southern Africa and the potentially negative effects of climate change demand ?greener? solutions to reverse this trend. Conservation agriculture (CA) has been proposed as one of those solutions and field level data show marked benefits of this new cropping system. Nevertheless, the use of rotations and/or associations in CA systems is challenging at both the farm and community level. Intercropped maize (Zea mays L.) with grain legumes, cowpea and pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan L. (Millsp.)), as well as maize rotated with cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L.

To investigate the influence of human activities on limnological characteristics of Lake Victoria, we analyzed inorganic nutrient concentrations, phytoplankton diversity and biomass at three locations with different land use patterns: Mwanza (urban/industrial), Magu (agricultural) and Kayenze (sparsely populated). Mwanza had significantly higher ammonia concentration compared to Kayenze and Magu. At the shoreline stations, significantly higher nitrate concentration was observed at Mwanza compared to Kayenze and Magu.

Simple and widely adopted sustainable soil management (SSM) practices, especially improvements in the management and quality of farmyard manure (FYM), have enabled many thousands of small-scale farmers in the Middle Hills of Nepal to increase organic matter in their soils. This has been achieved without increases in livestock numbers or in the quantity of manure available. The organic matter contents have increased in all of five time series of on-farm topsoil monitoring over periods of one to three years, at rates varying from 2% to 27%.