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Land
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Assessment and Monitoring of Land Degradation: Current Trends and Future...
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Assessment and Monitoring of Land Degradation: Current Trends and Future Directions

A special issue of Land (ISSN 2073-445X). This special issue belongs to the section "Soil-Sediment-Water Systems".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2024 | Viewed by 1903

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Xuchao Zhu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China
Interests: soil erosion management; cultivated land quality evaluation and improvement; soil physical properties variation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Human society relies on land for survival and development; most of the earth’s soil resources, however, are in fair, poor or very poor condition at present. Land degradation is thus still an important challenge to human beings. Land degradation generally refers to the decline of land quality and productivity caused by natural forces and unreasonable development and utilization by human beings, and there are some certain causes and many manifestations. For example, drought, flood, freeze–thaw, string wind, heavy rain, sea tide and other natural forces can lead to land desertification, soil erosion, salinization, etc. Inappropriate human reclamation, indiscriminate logging, unreasonable planting systems and irrigation methods, improper use of pesticides and fertilizers, etc., will cause land desertification, soil erosion, salinization, fertility decline, soil pollution, etc. Although land degradation assessment and monitoring has received extensive attention, there is still a lack of new and effective methods for land degradation assessment and monitoring with the development of science and technology, and there is still insufficient research on the trends, driving mechanisms, control measures and future research directions for different types of land degradation. Therefore, we intend to organize this Special Issue to compensate for this deficiency.

The goal of this Special Issue is to collect papers (original research articles and review papers) to give insights into the status, monitoring and evaluation of land degradation.

This Special Issue will welcome manuscripts that link the following themes:

  • Causes and manifestations of land degradation;
  • Land degradation evaluation: method, current status and future prospects;
  • Land degradation monitoring: new method or technology, status and perspectives;
  • Prevention and control of land degradation: measures, technology, effectiveness evaluation.

We look forward to receiving your original research articles and reviews.

Dr. Xuchao Zhu
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Land is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • soil erosion
  • soil desertification
  • soil salinization
  • soil fertility decline
  • soil pollution
  • land degradation evaluation
  • land degradation monitoring
  • current status
  • future prospects

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 6173 KiB  
Article
Temperature Mainly Determined the Seasonal Variations in Soil Faunal Communities in Semiarid Areas
by Zhiyong Li, Xi Yang, Wei Long, Ranran Song, Xuchao Zhu, Tongchuan Li, Ming’an Shao, Mingyu Chen and Miao Gan
Land 2024, 13(4), 505; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/land13040505 - 12 Apr 2024
Viewed by 338
Abstract
The implementation of the Grain for Green Project has increased vegetation coverage and provided suitable habitats and food resources for soil fauna, thereby promoting the development of soil faunal communities. Studying seasonal variations in soil fauna communities in different vegetation areas can improve [...] Read more.
The implementation of the Grain for Green Project has increased vegetation coverage and provided suitable habitats and food resources for soil fauna, thereby promoting the development of soil faunal communities. Studying seasonal variations in soil fauna communities in different vegetation areas can improve our understanding of the mechanisms that drive soil fauna recovery. We selected five typical artificially restored vegetation habitats, including Populus simonii (POS), Pinus tabulaeformis (PIT), Caragana korshinskii (CAK), Stipa bungeana (STB), and Medicago sativa (MES), and one farmland (Zea mays, FAL) habitat on the Loess Plateau. In this study, soil fauna communities and environmental factors were investigated during spring (May), summer (August), and autumn (November). Among the habitats, the STB habitat had the largest seasonal variation in soil faunal density (from 1173 ind·m−2 in May to 10,743 ind·m−2 in August), and the FAL habitat had the smallest (from 2827 ind·m−2 in August to 5550 ind·m−2 in November). Among the restored vegetation habitats, Acarina (44.89–88.56%) had the highest relative abundance of all taxa. The redundancy analysis (RDA) results showed that among the factors driving seasonal variation in soil animal communities, temperature (47.41%) was the most important, followed by precipitation (22.60%). In addition, the dominant groups, Acarina and Collembola, played an influential role in seasonal variations in soil faunal density. Temperature mainly determined the seasonal variations in soil faunal communities. Seasonal factors should be considered when conducting soil fauna research, as they contribute to biodiversity conservation and regional ecological management in the Loess Plateau. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Assessment and Monitoring of Land Degradation: Current Trends and Future Directions)
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17 pages, 2915 KiB  
Article
Application of Soil Multiparametric Indices to Assess Impacts of Grazing in Mediterranean Forests
by Picazo Córdoba Marta Isabel, García Saucedo Francisco, Wic Baena Consolación, García Morote Francisco Antonio, López Serrano Francisco Ramón, Rubio Eva, Moreno Ortego José Luis and Andrés Abellán Manuela
Land 2024, 13(4), 411; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/land13040411 - 23 Mar 2024
Viewed by 517
Abstract
In this study, the effects of different stocking rates were quantified in three study areas in a Mediterranean forest (Cuenca, Spain) by applying a multiparametric soil quality index (SQI) developed from undisturbed forest soils (>40 years). The main objective was to advance the [...] Read more.
In this study, the effects of different stocking rates were quantified in three study areas in a Mediterranean forest (Cuenca, Spain) by applying a multiparametric soil quality index (SQI) developed from undisturbed forest soils (>40 years). The main objective was to advance the development and application of multiparametric indices that allow for soil condition assessment. To fulfill this objective, the effectiveness of the developed multiparametric soil quality index (SQI) was analyzed as an indicator of livestock impacts on soil in the Mediterranean forest. The control areas without livestock activity were forest stands of different ages (a thicket forest stand of <30 years; a high-polewood forest stand of 30–60 years; and an old-growth forest stand of >60 years), which were compared with areas subjected to various grazing intensities (areas with permanent livestock passage: a sheepfold that had been inactive for 2–3 years and an active sheepfold; areas with intermittent livestock passage: a bare-soil area, a pine stand and a scrubland). The applied multiparametric soil quality index (SQI) was sensitive to changes in forest ecosystems depending on the stocking rates. However, to obtain greater precision in the assessment of the effects of stocking rates, the multiparametric index was recalibrated to create a new index, the Soil Status Index by Livestock (SSIL). The correlation between the quality ranges obtained with both indices in different study areas suggests that the SSIL can be considered a livestock impact reference indicator in Mediterranean forest soils. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Assessment and Monitoring of Land Degradation: Current Trends and Future Directions)
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24 pages, 12940 KiB  
Article
Automatic Extraction for Land Parcels Based on Multi-Scale Segmentation
by Fei Liu, Huizhong Lu, Lilei Wu, Rui Li, Xinjun Wang and Longxi Cao
Land 2024, 13(2), 158; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/land13020158 - 30 Jan 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 600
Abstract
Different land parcels possess unique microclimates, soils, and biological conditions, which in turn significantly influence the land parcels themselves, impacting biodiversity, hydrological relationships, land degradation, geological disasters, and other ecological environments. Therefore, researching an efficient and accurate method capable of extracting land parcels [...] Read more.
Different land parcels possess unique microclimates, soils, and biological conditions, which in turn significantly influence the land parcels themselves, impacting biodiversity, hydrological relationships, land degradation, geological disasters, and other ecological environments. Therefore, researching an efficient and accurate method capable of extracting land parcels with the least internal heterogeneity at the macro, meso, and micro scales is extremely important. Multi-scale segmentation, based on scale and resolution analysis techniques, is a bottom-up merging technology that minimizes internal heterogeneity within regions and maximizes heterogeneity between different units. This approach is extensively applied in multi-scale spectral feature extraction and classification and is further combined with deep learning techniques to enhance the accuracy of image classification. This study, using Xinghai County in Qinghai Province as an example, employs multi-scale segmentation and hydrological analysis methods to extract land parcels at different spatial scales. The results show (1) that the land parcels extracted using the hydrological analysis method are catchment units centered around rivers, including slopes on both sides of the river. In contrast, multi-scale segmentation extracts regions comprising land parcels with similar properties, enabling the segregation of slopes and channels into independent units. (2) At a classification threshold of 19, multi-scale segmentation divides the study area into five different types of land parcels, reflecting the heterogeneity of terrain undulations and their hydrological connections. When the classification threshold is set to 31, the study area is divided into 15 types of land parcels, primarily highlighting micro-topographic features. (3) Multi-scale segmentation can merge and categorize areas with the least heterogeneity in land parcels, facilitating subsequent statistical analysis. Therefore, mesoscale land parcels extracted through multi-scale segmentation are invaluable for analyzing regional Earth surface processes such as soil erosion, sediment distribution and transportation. Microscale land parcels are significantly important for identifying high-risk areas in relation to geological disasters like landslides and collapses. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Assessment and Monitoring of Land Degradation: Current Trends and Future Directions)
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