LAND DEGRADATION

Expanding populations and economic development have generated a growing demand for various land-based products, leading to increasing pressure on soils, water resources, and plants. In developing and developed countries, this pressure can exceed critical thresholds and requires land managers to face problems of deteriorating land resources, declining productivity and consequently reduced income. Maintenance of the productive potential of land resources, and checking of land degradation, is a fundamental element of sustainable land use.

The first attempt to combine soil degradation data collected by different ministries and institutes of Russia was undertaken by Dokuchaev Soil Institute in 1988-89 in the frame of the project on Global Assessment of Soil Degradation (GLASOD). Since then numerous publications concerning negative human impacts on soil have appeared in scientific and public journals describing types of degradation, their nature, severity, rate of change, extent, consequences, etc. The basic data were collected and published in Government (national) reports on the status and use of land in Russia. More Details...

Back

Degradation Types
  Water erosion
  Terrain deformation
  Compaction
  Secondary salinization
  Fires

Protection Measures
  Land/Plant Management

Pollution
  Soil & Air