LAND DEGRADATION - Database

Sources
Land Degradation
Adapted from: Stolbovoi V., G. Fischer, V. Sizov, B. Sheremet, S. Ovechkin and S. Rozhkova (Kravets), 1998. The IIASA-LUC project Georeferenced Database of the Former U.S.S.R., Vol. 3: Degradation Status in Russia, Interim Report IR-98-036, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria, 10.

Soil Contamination
Stolbovoi V. and V. Sizov, Land Resources of Russia CD-ROM.

Atmospheric Pollution
Forest Project, IIASA. Land Resources of Russia CD-ROM

Technical Description
The degradation coverage is described as having a source scale of 1:5 million. In the georeferenced database on soil degradation in Russia, the spatial information is represented by the mapping units of the updated FAO soil map of Russia (Stolbovoi et al., 1995). The attributes found in the database relate to soil degradation. They were created by coding information from several unpublished paper maps into digital format. The georeferencing of degradation attributes was accomplished by overlaying the polygons from the soil map with each of these maps. The database contains soil degradation attributes describing type and extent of degradation, and indicating the severity of impacts on productivity, rate of change, causative factors, and rehabilitation or protection measures.

Table Definition
The CD-ROM contains both soil and atmospheric pollution datasets available for download. For a detailed description of the atmospheric soil pollution databases, click here.

Coverage Definition

* EXT is replaced by the following other fields in the database:

CAUSE - causative factors
IMP - degradation impact
RATE - rate of degradation
DREM - degradation remarks
CTYPE - rehabilitation/conservation measures type
CEXT - rehabilitation/conservation measures extent
CREM - conservation remarks

Attribute Description
Compaction (Pc) - an increase of soil bulk density by more than 1.2 times as compared with those of natural soil [10].
Degradation - a process that describes human-induced phenomena which lower the current and/or future capacity of the soil to support human life [7, 8].
Desertification (Pa) - expanding areas of deserts as a result of natural (cyclic changes in climate) and anthropogenic causes (wood cutting, removal of herbaceous vegetation due to overgrazing) [3].
Deflation (Et) - loss of topsoil, disturbance of rocks and soils by the wind, accompanied by removal and grinding of soil particles.
Permafrost - the upper layer of the earth crust, characterizing by stable negative temperature for a long period of time (from 2 to several thousand years) and available ice inclusions in underlying rocks.
Salt-affected soils - soils of various types having:
toxic saluable salt for salt-tolerant plants within upper 2 m the soil profile, which are:
Cl > 0.3 meq/100,
SO4 (Na+Mg) > 1.7 meq/100,
HCO3 > 1 meq/100;
or the sum of saluable salts is higher than 0.2% in the case of sulfate salinity without gypsum.
The threshold of plant salt tolerance refers to the smallest salt content, which causes the decrease of crop yield due to soil salinization [1, 2]
Secondary salinization (Csi) - human-induced salt accumulation in the upper part of soil profile, resulting from evaporation of irrigation groundwaters in capillary fringe due to rise of groundwater table.
Soil bulk density - a ratio between the weight of soil dry matter of undisturbed soil consistence and the soil volume, in g/cm3.
Surface corrosion (Sp) - displacement of soil material of permafrost soils (solifluction, mudboiling, hummocks, etc.).
Water erosion (Wt) - loss of productive topsoil and loose parent material due to the detachment of soil particles and their removal by water run-off and sedimentation in the other places.
Terrain deformation (Ed) - irregular displacement of soil material by wind action, causing deflation hollows hummocks and dunes.
Thermokarst (T) - the formation of subsident relief forms and underground cavities resulting from ice or frost deposit defrostation.
Underflood (Pw) - increasing of the soil hydromorphizm due to the groundwater table raising caused by human activities [3].

Causative factor - a kind of human action that can be considered responsible for the occurrence of the degradation type involved [7]. Includes:
a - improper management, inefficient farming (insufficient or excessive use of fertilizers, shortening or absence of the fallow period, poor quality of irrigation waters, etc.);
f - deforestation, removal of woody vegetation from large stretches of land with the view of advancing the agricultural production, road construction, urban development, etc., or clean wood harvest;
e - over-exploitation of vegetation cover for the purposes of agriculture (plant cutting for fuel, fodder, etc.);
o - overgrazing;
i - industrial activities;
c - conflagration, fires resulting from human activities.

Impact on productivity - refers [7] to productivity change as compared with the average productivity of the nondegraded (non-improved) soil.
Following classes of productivity change have been distinguished:
A1 large productivity increase;
A2 small productivity increase;
A3 no productivity increase;
A4 small productivity decrease;
A5 - large productivity decrease;
A6 unproductive.

Rate of soil degradation - degradation trend [7] during the last 5-10 years. Three classes have been distinguished for the soil degradation increasing and three classes for the soil degradation decreasing:
3 rapidly increasing degradation,
2 moderately increasing degradation
1 slowly increasing degradation,
0 no change in degradation
-1 slowly decreasing degradation
-2 moderately decreasing degradation
-3 rapidly decreases degradation.

Protection measures - activities which are applied to soils affected by degradation [7]. Extent of conservation/protection measures is given in a percentage of the soil polygon.
Four categories are identified:
V - plant management (vegetative) practices: soil management, including agroforestry, crop ro tations);
L - land management practices (contour tillage, minimum tillage, contour-strip-cropping);
S - structural practices (construction of physical barriers to reduce or prevent excessive runoff and the soil loss (terraces and banks, gully-filling, constructed flumes);
O - Other practices oriented to soil protection or rehabilitation, which are focusing not only at erosion but also at soil pollution and salinization.

Stable under natural conditions (Sn) - absence of human influence on soil stability, and largely undisturbed vegetation [7].
Stable without vegetation (Sw) - absence of human influence on soil stability, e.g. deserts, high mountain zones [7].
Stable under human influence (Sh) - this influence may be passive, i.e. no special measures had or have to be taken to maintain stability, or active: measures have been taken to prevent or reverse degradation [7].

References
1. Bazilevich N.I., Pankova Ye.I., 1971. Soil classification according to chemise and salinity degree. Proceedings of Institute of Agrochemistry and Soil Science, v.1.,Yerevan. (in Russian).
2. Ecological requirements to qualitative composition of irrigation water to prevent soil salinity and alkalinity, 1995. M., 32 p. (in Russian).
3. Explanatory dictionary on the environment conservation, 1995. Moscow, Ecology, 190 p.
4. FAO-Unesco. Soil Map of the World. Revised Legend, 1988. World Resources Report No. 60, FAO, Rome, ISBN 92-5-102622-X.
5. Government (National) Report on the Status and Use of Land in the Russian Federation, 1993. Moscow, 94 p. (in Russian).
6. Government (National) report on land state and use in Russian Federation for 1994, 1995. M., 131 p. (in Russian).
7. Lynden G.W.J. van (Ed.), 1995. Guidelines for the Assessment of the Status of Human-Induced Soil Degradation in South and Southeast Asia (ASSOD). ISRIC, Wageningen, The Netherlands, 20 p.
8. Oldeman, L.R., R.T.A. Hakkeling and W.G. Sombroek, 1991. World Map of the Status of Human-Induced Soil Degradation. An Explanatory Note, second revised version. Global Assessment of Soil Degradation.
9. Pieri, C., J. Dumanski, A. Hamblin, and A. Young, 1995. Land Quality Indicators. World Bank Discussion Paper, 315, 63 p.
10. Snakin V.V., Krechetov P.P., Kuzovnikova T.A. et.al., 1992. Assessment system of soil degradation degree. Pushchino, 20 p. (in Russian).
11. Soil Map of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic at the scale of 2.5 M (edited by V.M. Fridland), 1988. All Union Academy of Agricultural Science (GUGK), USSR, 16 sheets.
12. Stolbovoi V.S., G. Fischer, 1998. A New Digital Georeferenced Database of Soil Degradation in Russia. Advances in GeoEcology, 31, ISBN 3-923381-42-5.
13. Stolbovoi, V., and B. Sheremet, 1995. New Soil Map of Russia, compiled in FAO System. Pochvovedenie, No. 2, p. 149-158 (in Russian).

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