Mapping land degradation and desertification (LDD) at the global scale still is a conceptual and operational challenge. The present study has been performed in the frame of the WAD (new World Atlas of Desertification) initiative. The objective of the paper is to test a structured procedure to identify relevant indicators for an effective representation of complex global LDD issues, based on available data sets (both geo-spatial and statistical), and conform to the UNCCD (United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification) requirements.

Human activities as well as natural events can dramatically affect land degradation negatively or positively. In Egypt, agriculture is a key sector of the economy. Land reclamation seeks to transfer desert areas to agricultural land and support the construction of new villages. The agricultural productivity improvement of these Newlands is slow and requires considerable time due to their fragility and sensitivity to desertification.

In Tigray, Ethiopia, land degradation is a dominant environmental problem and hence the regional government has undertaken restoration measures on degraded soils since 1991. The present study was aimed to assess the impact of land uses and soil management practices on soil properties, and consequently on soil quality of degraded soils. The catchments selected were Maileba and Gum Selassa, and land uses included cultivated (CL), grazing (GL), plantation (PA) and area exclosure (AE). Replicated soil samples were collected from topsoil and profiles of four land-use types in both catchments.

Land-use emissions accompanying biomass loss, change in soil organic carbon (ΔSOC) and decomposing wood-products, were comparable with fossil fuel emissions in the late 20th century. We examine the rates, magnitudes and uncertainties for major carbon (C) fluxes for rangelands due to commercial grazing and climate change in Australia. Total net C emission from biomass over 369Mha of rangeland to-date was 0.73 (±0.40)Pg, with 83% of that from the potentially forested 53% of the rangelands. A higher emission estimate is likely from a higher resolution analysis.

Graph-based analysis is a promising approach for analyzing the functional and structural connectivity of landscapes. In human-shaped landscapes, species have become vulnerable to land degradation and connectivity loss between habitat patches. Movement across the landscape is a key process for species survival that needs to be further investigated for heterogeneous human-dominated landscapes.

Soil erosion by water is currently one of the most notable types of land degradation in Samanalawewa Watershed in Sri Lanka, creating copious environmental and socioeconomic impacts. Thus, with the aim of detecting and mapping the rates of human-induced soil erosion in the watershed, remote sensing and geographic information system based modelling and field experiments were carried out.

Land degradation and their restoration are emerging issues all over the world for the environmental management. In this study, degraded sodic land was rehabilitated through afforestation and cropping for 50years.

Reduced tillage is said to be one of the potential ways to reverse land degradation and ultimately increase the productivity of degrading soils of Africa. We hypothesised that crop yield following a modest application of 2 t ha⁻¹ of crop residue in a reduced tillage system is similar to the yield obtained from a conventional tillage system, and that incorporation of legumes in a cropping system leads to greater economic benefits as opposed to a cropping system involving continuous maize.

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.

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.

The dry rangelands of West Asia and North Africa are fragile and severely degraded due to low rainfall and mismanagement of natural resources. Rainwater harvesting (RWH) interventions are used to increase soil moisture content, vegetation cover, and productivity. However, adoption of rainwater harvesting by communities is slow. To understand adoption constraints and to develop options for sustainable integration of rainwater harvesting, a benchmark watershed was established in the dry rangelands of Jordan.