Deep, linear gullies are a common feature of the present landscape of the Karoo of South Africa, where they were known locally in the early twentieth century as ‘sluits’. Recent research has shown that many of these features are now stable and are no longer significant sediment sources, although they are efficient connectors in the landscape. Because most of the gully networks predate the first aerial photographs, little is known in the scientific literature about the timing of their formation.

In the semi-arid tropics, communal grazing lands provide a livelihood for millions of people. However, it is highly threatened by overgrazing and continuous land degradation and, as a result, proper management is important to improve the livelihood of the people. This study investigated the effectiveness of exclosures established on communal grazing lands to restore soil properties and identified the relationship among soil properties, site and vegetation characteristics, and exclosure age.

The aim of this paper was to develop a simple assessment for precisely appraising the status and trends of desertification in Bayankhangai soum. The Bayankhangai soum is in central Mongolia, which is a part of the Hustai National Park, and this soum (administrative subdivision) belongs to the Orhon and Tuul river basins of the Khangai mountain region, encompassing 100,733 ha, and 7170 ha that is specially protected. The current study is more focused on methods for assessing climate change, pastureland change by herders and land degradation assessment.

The impact of land use changes on sustainable development is of increasing interest in many regions of the world. This study aimed to test the transferability of the Framework for Participatory Impact Assessment (FoPIA), which was originally developed in the European context, to developing countries, in which lack of data often prevents the use of data-driven impact assessment methods. The core aspect of FoPIA is the stakeholder-based assessment of alternative land use scenarios.

Soil erosion has resulted in serious land degradation in Yuanmou dry-hot valley, Yunnan province, China. Vegetation restoration had been widely developed in this hot and arid area. In this work we investigate the quality of rhizosphere soils under four restoration species in the towns of Zuolin (gully bed) and Yuanma (slope area). The vegetation included two trees [ Leucaena leucocephala (Lam.) de Wit. and Eucalyptus camaldulensis L.] for the slope area, one shrubland [ Dodonaea viscosa (Linn.) Jacq.

Regarding increasing pressures by global societal and climate change, the assessment of the impact of land use and land management practices on land degradation and the related decrease in sustainable provision of ecosystem services gains increasing interest. Existing approaches to assess agricultural practices focus on the assessment of single crops or statistical data because spatially explicit information on practically applied crop rotations is mostly not available.

Land degradation and desertification are widespread in drylands, highlighting the need to restore them to reverse their negative effects. The restoration of degraded drylands is commonly initiated by restoring the vegetation using plantations of tree/shrub seedlings.

This paper highlights results of a multidisciplinary and multi-analytical study of Holocene archaeological soils around Cecita Lake (Sila massif, Calabria, southern Italy), which represents a typical upland Mediterranean environment. It is focused on assessment of climatic and environmental changes that took place since late Neolithic to Roman times, trying to discriminate natural from anthropogenic signals.

The increasing demand of water in agriculture has compelled to search alternative source of water which could prove more economic and effective. Therefore, this investigation was carried out to study the effect of sewage effluents on Khaya senegalensis seedlings as well as on soil properties after 6, 12 and 18 months of plantation. The primary effluent treatment was highly significant (P

Soil fertility decline is a major constraint to crop productivity on smallholder farms in Africa. The objective of this study was to evaluate the long-term (up to nine years) impacts of nutrient management strategies and their local feasibility on crop productivity, soil fertility status and rainfall infiltration on two contrasting soil types and different prior management regimes in Murehwa, Zimbabwe.

Forest transition — i.e., the shift from decreasing to expanding forest cover — in the northern mountains of Vietnam was analyzed at the local scale in four villages from the 1970s to 2007–2008 to understand feedbacks from local environmental degradation on land uses, the conditions under which such feedbacks occur, and their possible roles in the transition. Remote sensing data were combined with field surveys including interviews, group discussions, mental and participatory mapping, observations and secondary sources.

Soil loss, nutrient depletion and land degradation contribute to the skimpy performance of smallholder agriculture and pose serious policy challenges in developing countries. Surprisingly, natural resource management practices that enhance sustainability while improving productivity have not been fully adopted despite continuous efforts of promotion.