Excessive soil loss and sediment yield in the highlands of Ethiopia are the primary factors that accelerate the decline of land productivity, water resources, operation and function of existing water infrastructure, as well as soil and water management practices. This study was conducted at Finchaa catchment in the Upper Blue Nile basin of Ethiopia to estimate the rate of soil erosion and sediment loss and prioritize the most sensitive sub-watersheds using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model.

In the western Algerian steppe, the public authorities have carried out actions aimed at rural development (agricultural development programs) and combating desertification (grazing reserves) to counter the significant and rapid loss of vegetation cover of pastures by overgrazing, and the consequent impacts on local livelihoods. In the Rogassa area, these actions have impacted land tenure and the ancestral and collective way of land use and access. These changes have caused transformations in lifestyle and pasture management.

Land use changes often lead to soil erosion, land degradation, and environmental deterioration. However, little is known about just how much humans accelerate erosion compared to natural background rates in non-agricultural settings, despite its importance to knowing the magnitude of soil degradation. The lack of understanding of anthropogenic acceleration is especially true for arid regions. Thus, we used 10Be catchment averaged denudation rates (CADRs) to obtain natural rates of soil erosion in and around the Phoenix metropolitan region, Arizona, United States.

Land use–land cover (LULC) alteration is primarily associated with land degradation, especially in recent decades, and has resulted in various harmful changes in the landscape. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) has the prospective capacity to classify the vegetative characteristics of many ecological areas and has proven itself useful as a remote sensing (RS) tool in recording vegetative phenological aspects. Likewise, the normalized difference built-up index (NDBI) is used for quoting built-up areas.

Although agricultural land abandonment (LA) is accompanied by land degradation, it could be considered a kind of self-rehabilitation. Studies have shown that long-term LA has profound ecological and environmental benefits, whereas few studies have compared LA with human intervention (HI), which involves planting and fertilization in agroecosystem restoration. Here, we established four different scenarios based on local livestock husbandry, including LA without HI, LA with slight human intervention (HIS), medium human intervention (HIM), and intensive human intervention (HII).

Land use and land cover change is an important driving force for changes in ecosystem services. We defined several important human-induced land cover change processes such as Ecological Restoration Project, Cropland Expansion, Land Degradation, and Urbanization by the land use/land cover transition matrix method. We studied human-induced land cover changes in the Yellow River Basin from 1980 to 2015 and evaluated its impact on ecosystem service values by the benefit transfer method and elasticity coefficient.

For the sustainable restoration of wet farm land degraded by the climate change-induced rise of ground water level (GWL) and soil salinity etc., the sheet pipe system is one of the most useful technologies which reduces cultivation obstacles due to the poor drainage by controlling the rapid drainage function and enabling farmers to produce profitable crops. This system is characterized mainly as a perforated polyethylene rolled-band sheet 180 mm in width and 1 mm thick which is drawn into the subsurface layer while transforming a drainage pipe with φ = 50 mm.

Hyperarid, arid, semiarid, and dry subhumid areas cover approximately 41% of the global land area. The human population in drylands, currently estimated at 2.7 billion, faces limited access to sufficient, affordable, and nutritious food. We discuss the interlinkages among water security, environmental security, energy security, economic security, health security, and food security governance, and how they affect food security in drylands. Reliable and adequate water supply, and the prevention of water contamination, increase the potential for ample food, fodder, and fiber production.

Ecological compensation provides innovative ecological solutions for addressing land degradation and guaranteeing the sustainable provision of essential ecosystem services. This study estimated the ecosystem service value and the opportunity cost of land use in the Poverty Belt of China—around Beijing and Tianjin—from 1980 to 2015 on the small watershed scale, and thereafter estimated the rational range of ecological compensation in this ecologically fragile zone.

Shear strength is an important mechanical property of soil, as its mechanical function plays critical roles in reducing land degradation and preventing soil erosion. However, shear strength may be affected by vegetation type through changes in the soil and root patterns. To understand the influences of different types of vegetation on shear strength, the soil shear indices of three typical vegetation types (broad-leaved forest, coniferous broad-leaved mixed forest, and grassland) were studied and evaluated at the Fengyang Mountain Nature Reserve, China.

Fragmentation has long been considered the primary cause for ecosystem degradation and biodiversity loss worldwide. Forest fragmentation affects ecosystem functioning and biodiversity in multiple ways. Here, we ask how forest fragmentation influences aboveground biomass storage (AGB) in sub-tropical forests in China. We established 207 20 m × 20 m plots within 69 forest fragments of varying size. Forest fragmentation process simulation was carried out via repeated quadrat sampling using different sized quadrats in two non-fragmented stands.

Research Highlights: This study was carried out to diagnose the forest ecosystem damaged by air pollution and to then develop a restoration plan to be used in the future. The restoration plan was prepared by combining the diagnostic assessment for the damaged forest ecosystem and the reference information obtained from the conservation reserve with an intact forest ecosystem. The restoration plan includes the method for the amelioration of the acidified soil and the plant species to be introduced for restoration of the damaged vegetation depending on the degree of damage.