The island of Sri Lanka is free from serious natural hazards such as volcanic activity and earthquakes resulting from climatic extremes, but there are impacts of many natural disasters, such as landslides, floods and droughts, the intensity and frequency of which are increasing due to human interventions. Some areas of Sri Lanka are also periodically subject to cyclones that occur due to climatic conditions and geographical locations.Land degradation denotes all natural or anthropogenic processes that diminish or impair productivity of land.

The island of Sri Lanka is free from serious natural hazards such as volcanic activity and earthquakes resulting from climatic extremes, but there are impacts of many natural disasters, such as landslides, floods and droughts, the intensity and frequency of which are increasing due to human interventions. Some areas of Sri Lanka are also periodically subject to cyclones that occur due to climatic conditions and geographical locations.Land degradation denotes all natural or anthropogenic processes that diminish or impair productivity of land.

The total area of the Arab Region is about 14·2 million km2, 90% of it lies within arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas. The area is characterized by harsh environment, fragile ecosystems and limited water resources and arable lands. Throughout its long history these lands were the main source of grain and animal production. By the end of this century and in spite of the national, regional and international efforts to combat desertification and mitigate the effect of drought and desiccation, desertification is still one of the major environmental problems in the Arab Region.

Agriculture is major sector in the economy of Central Asia. The sustainable use of agricultural land is therefore essential to economic growth, human well-being, social equity, and ecosystem services. However, salinization, erosion, and desertification cause severe land degradation which, in turn, degrade human health and ecosystem services. Here, we review the impact of agricultural land use in the five countries of Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, during 2008–2013 in 362 articles.

It is known that erosion is a leading factor in land degradation. Therefore, erosion must be correctly estimated and effective precautions must be taken for a sustainable agricultural activity. Hence, many models and methods have been developed for estimation of soil erodibility or calculating of quantity of the soil loss. In the present paper, using of fuzzy logic based models were examined in soil erosion prediction studies. For this goal, binary logic was described and then the transition from the classical logic to fuzzy logic has been studied.

In this paper, it is shown how a system can be created by using methods of Artificial Intelligence, designated (a) to provide the user with information about the transformations of Mediterranean-type landscapes in an interactive way, (b) to allow the modelling of causes and effects of landscape transformations (such as land degradation) and (c) to forecast future landscape changes. The system consists of programs, which run independently. Each module performs a certain task only and contributes to the modelling of landscape transformations in a different way.

Soil erosion is a major global environmental problem that has caused many issues involving land degradation, sedimentation of waterways, ecological degradation, and nonpoint source pollution. Therefore, it is significant to understand the processes of soil erosion and sediment transport along rivers, and this can help identify the erosion prone areas and find potential measures to alleviate the environmental effects.

This study profiled soils over a land degradation gradient to obtain formulae as integrative measures for describing the gradient as a result of deforestation in Thailand. We applied antibiotic resistance most-probable-number profiling to the soil bacterial communities, and then described the gradient. Soil samples were collected on the gradient represented by dry evergreen forest (the original vegetation), dry deciduous forest (moderately disturbed) and bare ground (the most degraded) in February (dry season), March (shortly after temporal precipitation) and June (rainy season) 2001.

Land degradation and global warming are currently highly active research topics. Land degradation can both change land cover and surface climate and significantly influence atmospheric circulation. Researches have verified that carbon dioxide (CO₂) and methane (CH₄) are major greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere and are directly affected by human activity. However, to date, there is no research on the spatial distribution of GHG concentrations and also no research on how land degradations affect GHG concentrations in arid and semi-arid regions.

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in the study of climate change effects on plant phenology. However, the effects of other more localized components of global change such as land degradation have been almost completely ignored. In this paper we evaluate the phenological patterns of 10 plant species at three sites with contrasting levels of land degradation due to overgrazing in the Patagonian Monte, Argentina, and their relationship with plant morphology, browsing intensity, and plant competition.

The island of Sri Lanka is free from serious natural hazards such as volcanic activity and earthquakes resulting from climatic extremes, but there are impacts of many natural disasters, such as landslides, floods and droughts, the intensity and frequency of which are increasing due to human interventions. Some areas of Sri Lanka are also periodically subject to cyclones that occur due to climatic conditions and geographical locations.Land degradation denotes all natural or anthropogenic processes that diminish or impair productivity of land.