The main goal of this study was to investigate structural and productivity changes in rangeland ecosystems in New Mexico (NM), in the southwestern United States of America during the 19842015 period. Two approaches are used to evaluate the extent of land degradation in this study: biomass productivity (NDVI) decline and land use land cove change (LUCC). This study uses a collection 5 of the MODIS land cover type dataset (MCD12Q1), which provides annual land cover information at a 500-metre spatial resolution [19]. Similarly, about 30% and 20% of the Ethiopian and Malawian population were affected by land degradation over the same period. According to AM, 16% of the area in KK districts was degraded during 20002015, whereas DM revealed total LD on 70% of the area. The Assessment Report assesses all terrestrial regions (except Antarctica), recognising that land degradation drivers and processes can vary in regions, as well as between them. Many developing nations are facing severe food insecurity partly because of their dependence on rainfed agriculture. Drought, overgrazing and other impacts due to human activity may cause a decline in vegetation cover, which may result in land degradation. This study is the first to adapt local datasets in interplay with high-resolution imagery to monitor the extent of LD in the semiarid Kiteto and Kongwa (KK) districts of Tanzania from 20002019. J Arid Environ 57(4):535554. LADA follows for both the national and local level assessments the DPSIR Framework. Remote Sensing plays an unprecedented role in LD mapping, assessment and monitoring. https://www.mdpi.com/openaccess. Dryland landscapes cover approximately 40 percent of the worlds land area and support two billion people. Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. The implications of these results are presented in Conclusion. The FGDs indicate an agreement with remotely sensed information on land degradation in seven sites out of eight in Tanzania and five sites out of six in Ethiopia. United Nations Environment Programme ; International Science-Policy Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (2018-02-05) This report gives an overview of the comprehensive evidence-based assessment report on land degradation and restoration. There are two broad approaches to evaluate land degradation: ground-based measurements and remote sensing. To counteract land degradation in Ethiopia, initiatives such as the Sustainable Land Management Programme (SLMP) have been implemented. As expected, drylands are most prone to land degradation as a result of vegetation degradation and reduced land cover, but humid areas especially rainforests are also fragile environments and prone to rapid degradation if not well managed. Correspondence to GLADA (Global Land Degradation Assessment and Improvement), developed by ISRIC, used remote sensing data to identify areas that are becoming degraded and areas where degradation has been arrested or reversed. Further analyses by LULC types and land change highlighted the vulnerability of both human and natural systems to drought. Compared with large-scale field measurements, wind erosion modeling based on geospatial data is an efficient and effective method for quantitative soil wind erosion, A lack of long-term soil wind erosion data impedes sustainable land management in developing regions, especially in Central Asia (CA). To achieve this goal, The United Nations expanded program for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) aims to mobilize capital from developed countries in order to reduce emissions from these sources while enhancing the removal of greenhouse gases (GHGs) by forests. [32] and from MODIS datasets. People with various occupational backgrounds that typically represented the communitysuch as local leaders, crop producers, livestock producers, those who earn their livelihoods from forest and non-agricultural activities (teachers, artisans, and traders) were selected. Coupling remote sensing and Geographic Information System techniques, drought evolution was assessed and mapped. Land degradation is defined as ''the persistent reduction of the production capacity of a land, which may be manifest through any combination of a number of interrelated processes, such as: soil erosion, deterioration of soil nutrients, loss of biodiversity, deforestation or declining vegetative health'' [ 31 ]. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. In partnership with the World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies (WOCAT), the project developed a methodology for mapping land degradation and SLM and tested it in six pilot countries Argentina, China, Cuba, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia. This presents an accuracy of about 88% and 86%, respectively. At global level a Map of Land Use System (LUS) was developed with 5 arc-minute spatial resolution (9x 9 km at the equator). By establishing the underlying causes of land degradation, the Assessment Report seeks to provide policymakers with the information needed to develop appropriate responses. As observed during the FGDs, intense discussions occurred before an agreed response for each of the questions was recorded. Keldnaholt, 112 Reykjavk, Iceland, Kirkby MJ, Jones RJA, Irvine B, Gobin A, Govers G, Cerdan O, Rompaey JJ, Bissonais Y, Daroussin J, King D, Montanarella L, Grimm M, Vieillefont, V, Puidefabregas J, Rozema-Boer M, Kosmas C, Yassoglou N, Tsara M, MantelS, Lynden GWJ, Huting J (2004) Pan-European soil erosion risk assessment: the PESERA Map, Version 1 October 2003. local level assessment of land degradation and sustainable land management. The net gainers in Tanzania were bare land (29%) and grasslands (11%), while the net losers were shrubland (59%), cropland (41%) and forests (17%). https://doi.org/10.5194/se-6-985-2015, de Bei CAJM (2005) Assessment of soil erosion indicators for maize-based agro-ecosystems in Kenya. wR.|X2MC3)KRqrYm!bplPId$Y)#OdO 0)1L'8{z. Soil erosion also has been researched by experimental approach [41]; Lieskovsk and Kenderessy, [11, 33, 36, 43, 49]. The higher temperatures resulted in more frequent and prolonged droughts due to higher potential evapotranspiration rates. 3, 318 (2021). Center for Development Research, University of Bonn, Genscheralle 3, 53113, Bonn, Germany, Oliver K. Kirui,Alisher Mirzabaev&Joachim von Braun, You can also search for this author in What looks like improved greenness using, for example remote-sensing imagery (e.g., increase in bush and shrub cover), can be considered degradation in, e.g., pastoral livelihood systems if such greenness has come at the expense of good grasses. These findings are particularly relevant because proper identification of areas experiencing land degradation is important in designing policies and practices aimed at restoring the degraded lands and in developing policies for improving livelihoods. Land degradation and restoration response framework. Scientists recently warned that 24 billion tons of fertile soil was being lost per year, largely due to unsustainable agriculture practices. Save the planet. In surveyed villages in Tanzania, significant changes are as follows: reduction of forests in Zombo, Dakawa and Mazingira villages; increase in croplands in Zombo, Dakawa, Zuzu, Mazingira and Mamba; significant in shrub land in Sejeli and Mamba; decline in cropland in Mtili; and decline in grasslands in Sejeli and Zuzu. Therefore, there is a need to ground-truth and triangulate these analyses with household-/plot-level analysis and field observations. The other types of land degradation include salinization and waterlogging, decline in soil fertility and loss of habitat (especially forests and woodlands). Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). The net change refers to the total gained area minus the total lost area. Identified drought periods in the time series correspond to declared drought years by the Botswana government. https://doi.org/10.1109/tgrs.2005.860205, Chikhaoui M, Bonn F, Bokoye AI, Merzouk A (2005) A spectral index for land degradation mapping using ASTER data: application to a semi-arid mediterranean catchment. Unlike this GLASOD and TERRASTAT assessment, [3] estimated that about 24% of the global land area has degraded (significant decline in NDVI) over the previous 25years. [32] at the global level. Malawi is the least affected (9%). Many developing nations are facing severe food insecurity partly because of their dependence on rainfed agriculture. The net gainers in Malawi were bare land (57%) and grasslands (18%), while the net losers were shrubland (81%), cropland (34%) and woodland (31%). Among them, water erosion and wind erosion are the most widespread types of land degradation (46% and 38%, respectively), followed by chemical and physical deterioration of soils (16%). UNCCD ( 2012) stated that land deterioration is a decrease or damage of the biological or economic efficiency and involvedness of rainfed cultivation, irrigated cultivation, or range, pasture, forest and woodlands subsequent from land uses or from a progression or amalgamation of progressions, counting processes stand up from human actions and h. Degradation also needs to be viewed in the context of land use and livelihood systems. It is important, therefore, to understand the enabling environment, support, investments, techniques and technologies needed to increase adoption in a given set of biophysical and socio-economic conditions. https://doi.org/10.5194/se-5-851-2014, Nachtergaele F, Petri M, Biancalani R, Van Lynden G, Van Velthuizen H (2010) Global Land Degradation Information System (GLADIS). Moreover, as land degradation directly affects vegetation biophysical processes and leads to changes in ecosystem functioning, it has a knock-on effect on habitats and, therefore, on numerous species of flora and fauna that become endangered or/and extinct. Soil and Tillage Research 117:140147. Rainfall did not significantly change over the period of 19402020, but mean monthly temperatures increased by 1.06 C. Difference Vegetation Indices (NDVI) considering climatic variation, tested in six pilot countries (Argentina, China, Cuba, Senegal, South Africa, and Tunisia). Due to the heterogeneity of the landscapes of the highlands of the Ethiopian Plateau and the small spatial scale at which human-induced changes take place, this study explored the value of using 30 m resolution Landsat data as the basis for time series analysis. [32] and the FGDs in seven sites out of eight in Tanzania and six sites out of seven in Ethiopia. Biomass quality assessment is crucial not only for energy characterization but also for environmental and operational aspects. The total population of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is currently estimated at 750 million people [54], but this is projected to grow past the one billion mark by 2020 [23, 54]. The arid and semiarid conditions of the southern parts of Tanzania and eastern parts of Malawi may also be a contributing factor to the high degradation levels. More recently, the Economics of Land Degradation (ELD) initiative defines land degradation as reduction in the economic value of ecosystem services and goods derived from land (ELD 2013). In this research, we integrated the salinization index (SI), albedo, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and land surface soil moisture index (LSM) through the principal component analysis (PCA) method to establish a salinized land degradation index (SDI). Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For example, in Ethiopia much of degradation (32%) was experienced in areas with sparse vegetation, in Kenya the highest proportion of degradation was experienced in forested areas (46%), while shrubland and mosaic vegetation and cropland each had 42% degraded. This goal was achieved by applying the time series segmented residual trend analysis (TSS-RESTREND) method, using datasets of the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) from the Global Inventory Modeling and Mapping Studies and precipitation from Parameter elevation Regressions on Independent Slopes Model (PRISM), and developing an assessment framework. To translate NDVI values into a land degradation assessment, we analysed the variance of the annual average NDVI within different landscape units, which we identified based on land cover, aspect, and slope steepness parameters. Inferences from a 2019 field study were valuable in explaining some of the observed patterns. Essentially, LDN is about managing land more sustainably to reduce degradation, while increasing rates of land restoration. 4). Editors Choice articles are based on recommendations by the scientific editors of MDPI journals from around the world. Peter Lang GmbH, Frankfurt, Nkonya E, Mirzabaev A, von Braun J (2016) Economics of land degradation and improvement: a global assessment for sustainable development. Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative, Over 10 million scientific documents at your fingertips, Not logged in the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, LADA produced a comprehensive manual. Assessment of land degradation on the ground and from above, https://doi.org/10.1007/s42452-021-04314-z, Assessing land degradation and identifying potential sustainable land management practices at the subnational level in Lebanon, Validating local drivers influencing landuse cover change in Southwestern Ghana: a mixed-method approach, Land Assessment in Russia Based on the Concept of Land Degradation Neutrality, The Study of Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) Dynamics and the Perception of Local People in Aykoleba, Northern Ethiopia, Socio-ecological dimensions of Andean pastoral landscape change: bridging traditional ecological knowledge and satellite image analysis in Sajama National Park, Bolivia, Identifying hotspots in land use land cover change and the drivers in a semi-arid region of India, A combined GIS and remote sensing approach for monitoring climate change-related land degradation to support landscape preservation and planning tools: the Basilicata case study, Assessment of land use/land cover change and its environmental impacts using remote sensing and GIS techniques, Yarmouk River Basin, north Jordan, Assessment of Land Degradation in Northern Oman Using Geospatial Techniques, Earth and Environmental Sciences (general), 2. However, the main weakness of these studies is that they are based on subjective expert judgment and must be approached with caution. The GEF is well-placed to help countries implement convention decisions and facilitate coordinated investments in sustainable land management practices, including LDN. Google Scholar, Gupta A, Hock L, Xiaojing H, Ping C (2002) Evaluation of part of the Mekong River using satellite imagery. Relating drought severity and intensities to LULC and change in selected drought years revealed that most lands affected by extreme and severe drought (in descending order) were in tree-covered areas (forests and woodlands), grassland/rangelands and croplands. Firstly the accuracy reached 84.43%, 85.35%, and 82.68% in 1990, 2000, and 2010, respectively, based on high spatial resolution image by building a hybrid matrix. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00699-4_3. 2. Such a comprehensive description of Mount Elgon vegetation dynamics is an important first step to instigate policy changes for simultaneously conserving the environment and improving livelihoods that are dependent on it. With booming population growth, agricultural land expands, and natural resource extraction increases, leading to changes in land use and land cover. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19168-3, Book The GEF strategy has two primary objectives: Support on the ground implementation of sustainable land management. Land Degradation Assessment in Dryland Areas (LADA) Draft. Land degradation is occurring in almost all terrestrial biomes and agro-ecologies, in both low and high income countries. Regardless, accurate identification of gullies from satellite images remains an open issue despite the amount of literature addressing this problem. 1). The processes of land degradation or improvement were identified using FGDs conducted with local communities in each of the selected sites using semistructured questionnaires. The field surveys also provide clarity on the ambiguous surface processes such as invasive species that tend to increase vegetative cover which would lead to erroneous conclusions if solely remote-sensing analysis is used. CGIAR Science Council Secretariat, Rome, Vlek P, Le QB, Tamene L (2010) Assessment of land degradation, its possible causes and threat to food security in Sub-Saharan Africa. All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. However, there is limited understanding of the social-ecological features of its degraded lands and potential insights for sustainable land management and governance. On the other hand, the comparison between MODIS land cover change assessments and the FGDs was mixed. The processes that have more commonly been identified as the driving factors behind land degradation are both anthropogenic as well as climatic, and numerous studies have thus far attempted to disentangle the nexus between the two. Solid Earth 6(3):985995. Land Degradation Assessment in Drylands Technical Report, no. At least 80% of the participants in Ethiopia and 50% Tanzania had been involved in discussions about environmental changes/issues during the previous year with extension agents, forest experts, local and national NGOs, etc., so they have had a knowledge about the ecosystems and their services and issues related to environmental change in general. Find support for a specific problem in the support section of our website. By far the most widely used approach in assessing land degradation has been to employ Earth observation data. LADA defines land degradation as a reduction in the capacity of the land to provide ecosystem goods and services over a period of time for its beneficiaries. For these countries national maps were developed of land degradation and SLM status at 5 arc-minute resolution, as well as comprehensive databases holding a large number of land degradation. At all levels of operation LADA tools and approaches are principally designed towards biophysical assessment of land degradation. The comparison between remote-sensing data reported by Le et al. Arid Soil Res Rehabil 13(4):319325. Land Degrad Dev 14(4):347361. To counteract land degradation in Ethiopia, initiatives such. Solid Earth 6(2):633641. Participants also included women, youth, customary/cultural leaders. https://doi.org/10.5194/se-6-633-2015, Sonneveld BGJS (2003) Formalizing expert judgements in land degradation assessment: a case study for Ethiopia. . The FGD participants expressed land degradation (or improvement) of the major biomes which have occurred in the community over three decades (19822013). It was primarily designed to allow direct comparison to available remotely sensed estimates in this analysis. The Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) Impact Program seeks to avoid further degradation, desertification, and deforestation of land and ecosystems in drylands through the sustainable management of production landscapes. In: Heidhues F, von Braun J, Zeller M (eds) Development economics and policy series vol 66. While utilizing long-term NDVI, they show that about 27% of the land is subject to degradation processes including soil degradation, overgrazing or deforestation. Some studies utilizing this approach include [15] in Senegal; [45] [25, 38] in the Sahel; [44] in Zimbabwe and Mozambique, [57] in SSA, [3] and Le et al. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0477(1998)079%3c0815:DDASVA%3e2.0.CO;2), Nkonya E, Gerber N, Baumgartner P, von Braun J, de Pinto A, Graw V, Kato E, Kloos J, Walter T (2011) The economics of land degradation: toward an integrated global assessment. The net gainers in Kenya were grasslands (7 mha) and woodlands (0.13 mha), while the net losers were grasslands (6.1 mha) and bare land (0.7 mha). Final Report. https://doi.org/10.1002/ldr.762, Lu D, Batistella M, Mausel P, Moran E (2007) Mapping and monitoring land degradation risks in the Western Brazilian Amazon using multitemporal Landsat TM/ETM+images. Spatial distribution of mining development was quantified, due to four land-use maps in 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2017. Cropland remained a significant land use category (about 80%) in Kemona and increased significantly in Mambafrom 25% in 2001 to 75% in 2013 (Table5). Such investments are important for restoring and maintaining ecosystem services and increasing the resilience of people and ecosystems to change, shocks and extreme events. The first section of the FGDs (changes in land use and land cover changes, cropping intensity and yields, and deforestation) was designed to elicit, either directly or indirectly, the presence or absence of land degradation and the associated impacts. The World Bank, Washington, Borak JS, Lambin EF, Strahler AH (2000) The use of temporal metrics for land cover change detection at coarse spatial scales. https://doi.org/10.1080/01431169408954346, Seutloali KE, Beckedahl HR (2015) Understanding the factors influencing rill erosion on roadcuts in the south eastern region of South Africa. [32]. The, The availability of aerial and satellite imageries has greatly reduced the costs and time associated with gully mapping, especially in remote locations. methods, instructions or products referred to in the content. In particular, the project will build capacity in the 15 partner countries in three interlinked components: 1) national and local decision support for combating desertification, land degradation and drought (DLDD) and promoting the mainstreaming and scaling up of SLM best practices; 2) the development of a global DLDD and SLM knowledge managemen. Based on the meteorological data, trends in rainfall, temperature and drought were determined. Compared with large-scale field measurements, wind erosion modeling based on geospatial data is an efficient and effective method for quantitative soil wind erosion mapping. In: Lal R, Stewart BA (eds) Food security and soil quality. The survey-based observations are important because they provide ground-based estimates of land degradation from the perspectives of the communities involved. Glob Change Biol 4(4):359374. volume3, Articlenumber:318 (2021) The authors declare no conflict of interest. Please let us know what you think of our products and services. The Food Systems, Land Use, and Restoration (FOLUR) Impact Program provides the opportunity for an integrated approach to implementing sustainable land management to increase the prospects for food security for smallholders and communities that are dependent on farming for their livelihoods. However, remote-sensing datasets may have structural errors. Survey-based datasets collected through focus group discussions (FGDs) are used to complement the remote-sensing observations. Bonn, Germany, Dengiz O, Akgul S (2005) Soil erosion risk assessment of the global environmental protection area and its vicinity using the CORINE model. In Ethiopia, land degradation was reported in about 228,160km2 (23%) and just about 127,424km2 (22%) in Kenya. https://doi.org/10.1002/ldr.762, Middleton NJ, Thomas DG (1992) World atlas of desertification. Beta Version. Land Degrad Dev 18(1):99116. However, little is known about the influence land use-land cover (LULC) hasin terms of the differences in annual sizes and configurationson drought effects. Remotely sensed dataset on land use and land cover change (LUCC) is based on Total Economic Value framework proposed by [40] and also applied to Eastern Africa [29]. MODIS is a valuable source of both NDVI and LUCC information globally, though it is only available from 2001. These assessments were done based on experts opinion and for varying time periods and only focused on soil degradation, not land as a whole. A decrease in productivity was observed in 2.2%, 4.5%, and 1.7% of NMs grassland, shrubland, and ever green forest land cover classes, respectively. Various techniques, including relative questions (such as were yields this year higher or lower than five years ago? Land is a vital resource to humankind, like air and water. During the growing season, drought severity and the effects on LULC were examined and whether these differed between areas of land change and persistence. Int J Remote Sens 15(17):35873620. The study was based on an analysis of vegetation greenness, which used the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index as a proxy for net primary productivity, adjusted for climate change effects on biomass using rain-use and energy-use efficiency. Remote Sens Environ 115(10):25472563. While MODIS land cover changes between the years 2000 and 2006 were chosen to provide estimates of recent degradation trends, available land cover changes from the FGDs survey are for the period 2000 and 2013. The results show that the mean SWEP is in good agreement with the ground observation-based dust storm index (DSI), satellite-based Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD), and Absorbing Aerosol Index (AAI), confirming that GEE-RWEQ is a robust wind erosion prediction model. This study is the first in Eastern Africa to complement remote sensing with ground-level assessments in evaluating the extent of land degradation at national and regional scales. Archetypes are dominated by: (1) protected areas; (2) very high-density population; (3) moderately high information/knowledge access; (4) low literacy levels and moderatehigh poverty levels; (5) rural remoteness; (6) remoteness from a major road; (7) very high livestock density; (8) moderate poverty level and nearly level terrain; and (9) very rugged terrain and remote from a major road. Editors select a small number of articles recently published in the journal that they believe will be particularly Nutr Cycl Agroecosyst 102(1):1731. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2011.12.015, Friedl MA, Sulla-Menashe D, Tan B, Schneider A, Ramankutty N, Sibley A, Huang X (2010) MODIS Collection 5 global land cover: algorithm refinements and characterization of new datasets. The goal of this study is to characterize . Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2021) | Viewed by 50849. The Nigerian Guinea Savannah is the most extensive ecoregion in Nigeria, a major food production area, and contains many biodiversity protection areas. The results indicated that about 17.6% and 12.8% of NM experienced a decrease and an increase in productivity, respectively. In this paper, we introduce a methodological framework for setting RLs for REDD+ applications in tropical forests in Xishuangbanna, China, by coupling the Good Practice Guidance on Land Use, Land Use Change, and Forestry of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and land use scenario modeling. The NDVI data were used to determine changes in vegetation cover and vegetation resilience related to the occurrence of drought. Then especially, the 2010 Globeland30 data was used as the standard to verify the forest land accuracy and the extraction accuracy reached 86.92% and 83.66% for area and location, respectively. The problems are particularly severe in the driest parts the planet. All this information was elicited for 1982, 2000, 2006 and 2013. Further, we compared our results of the LD assessment based on the adopted high-resolution data and methodology (AM) with the default medium-resolution data and methodology (DM) suggested by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. Are you sure you want to print? To address this issue, we developed a Google Earth Engine-based Revised Wind Erosion Equation (RWEQ) model, named GEE-RWEQ, to delineate the Soil Wind Erosion Potential (SWEP). Firstly, the site selection considered different land use categories (forests, croplands, grasslands, shrublands) based on US Geological Survey (U.S.G.S.) GLADA (Global Land Degradation Assessment and Improvement), developed by ISRIC, used remote sensing data to identify areas that are becoming degraded and areas where degradation has been arrested or reversed. The hot spot areas in Ethiopia are characterized by high population pressure (on land and forests), farming activities on steep slopes and frequent famines occasioned by unreliable rainfall. Information was also collected on the main source of income including crop farming, livestock farming, mixed farming, forest harvesting, fisheries or nonagricultural activities, etc. Current frameworks rely on default medium-resolution remote sensing datasets available to assess LD and cannot identify subtle changes at the sub-national scale. George Mitri, Georgy Nasrallah, Dominique Choueiter, Isaac Sarfo, Bi Shuoben, Grace Chikomborero Ndafira, Mehari Mariye, Melesse Maryo & Jianhua Li, Karina Yager, Corinne Valdivia, Alejandro Romero, Vijayasekaran Duraisamy, Ramkumar Bendapudi & Ajit Jadhav, Marzia Gabriele, Raffaella Brumana, Alberta Cazzani, Mutawakil Obeidat, Muheeb Awawdeh & Abeer Lababneh, SN Applied Sciences You seem to have javascript disabled. Vulnerability means the potential to be harmed. Part of Springer Nature. The proportion of land made up by forests varies widely in the different regions of this federal state. Socio-economic, cultural and institutional factors of land degradation are not treated in depth. The integration of MannKendall and bfast proved useful in comprehensively characterizing vegetation greenness. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. The figure for Tanzania (13%) is quite low compared to a later study [2] based on expert opinion that showed about 61% of the territory affected by land degradation. Therefore, participants in the FGDs were diverse and were chosen based on the following criteria: The opinion leaders and village elders with knowledge about land use changes over the last decades and also aware of the size and boundaries of their communities. The results from NDVI measures show that during 19822006 land degradation occurred in about 51%, 41%, 23% and 22% in Tanzania, Malawi, Ethiopia and Kenya, respectively. We define LDN as "a state whereby the amount and quality of land resources necessary to support ecosystem functions and services to enhance food security remain stable, or increase, within specified temporal and spatial scales and ecosystems." Achieving LDN requires three concurrent actions: We used the results of land surface phenology modeling at higher spatial resolution to characterize spatial and temporal patterns of phenometrics indicative of the seasonal peak in herbaceous vegetation. In summary, these changes are observed as follows: Deforestation in Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania, Significant reductions in the croplands in Malawi and Tanzania but significant increase in Ethiopia. The combination of these two types of disturbances can partly explain the emergence of breakpoints with degradation in productivity. The Global Environment Facility, FAO and the United Nations Environment Programme supported the LADA project with the aim of improving the ability to diagnose land degradation and its impacts. Ground-truthing is usually done on-site, and it involves performing surface observations or measurements of various properties of the features of the ground resolution cells that are being studied on the remotely sensed dataset. Dahlem Workshop Report 88 Dahlem University Press, Berlin, pp 2437, Prince SD, Brown de Colstoun E, Kravitz L (1998) Evidence from rain use efficiencies does not support extensive Sahelian desertification. Remote Sensing plays an unprecedented role in LD mapping, assessment and monitoring at multiple spatial and temporal scales. ), and collaborative collective sketching of community land use maps were used elicit the information and guide the discussions. You are accessing a machine-readable page. This approach combines three approaches; the land user opinion, the farm-level field observations and assessment of productivity changes. The questionnaire is an evaluation tool for land degradation and the conservation activities undertaken in a country or provinces / regions within a country. [32]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jag.2013.11.014, Haub C (2009) Demographic trends and their humanitarian impacts. In principle, the agricultural land in . In terms ofoutcomes, the land related conflicts significantly decreased, 109 cases of access to land, services, and infrastructures were solved, and 26,000 producers were given sustainable access to land for cultivation and market gardens, 67% of beneficiaries being women. The Sustainable Cities Impact Program will create opportunity for countries to integrate voluntary LDN targets into urban planning. In this study, the FGDs are used as a complement to the remote-sensing based observations and to evaluate the accuracy and reliability of land degradation hotspots map developed in Le et al. In Ethiopia land degradation through soil erosion is of major concern. Input datasets used in the classification procedure include information from MODIS bands 17, the enhanced vegetation index, land surface temperature and nadir BRDF-adjusted reflectance data. Interim report version 3.31, 28 October 2003. Monitoring the land degradation of salinized areas facilitates land management and ecological restoration. A short summary of this manual can be obtained by entering 'LADA LOC' in the LRP free-text search box. A balance between males and females in the group was considered. The surveys provide ground-based estimates of land degradation from the perspectives of the land users or the communities involved. With the above-normal vegetation productivity in the ongoing season (20202021), the results suggest the reversal of the negative vegetation trends observed in the preceding growing seasons. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0341-8162(02)00133-9, Running SW, Justice CO, Salomonson V, Hall D, Barker J, Kaufmann YJ, Strahler AH, Huete AR, Muller JP, Vanderbilt V, Wan ZM, Teillet P, Carneggie D (1994) Terrestrial remote sensing science and algorithms planned for EOS/MODIS. LADA produced s specific assessment products and methods at three scales of operation: global, national and local. Stocking and Murnaghan demonstrate these by using indicators that are relevant and applicable to real farming situations. Global Assessment of Human-Induced Soil Degradation (GLASOD), Global Land Degradation Assessment (GLADA), Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia, Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean, Regional Office for the Near East and North Africa. Slider with three articles shown per slide. Using standardized criteria and expert judgment, [42] revealed that about 20% of SSA was affected by slight to extreme land degradation in 1990. 17. [32] dataset is useful in identifying global geographic degradation hotspots or improvement hotspots. Le et al. Global Planet Change 64(3):169176. The FGDs were conducted in the local languages with the help of translators at the farmer training centers at the villages or in community meeting rooms for about 45h. The FGDs began with sketching of the community map and identification of different land use types on a flipchart. https://doi.org/10.1002/ldr.564, Stringer LC, Reed MS (2007) Land degradation assessment in southern Africa: integrating local and scientific knowledge bases. Natural Resources Issues Series No. Assessment of land degradation on the ground and from above. The greennessprecipitation relationship was weak in other periods. Visit our dedicated information section to learn more about MDPI. To provide a more succinct picture, these changes relative to the baseline (2001) land areas are presented (Fig. CATENA 59(3):231251. Scientific methods are necessary to monitor the risk of land degradation. This impact shows spatial differences due to the complex influence of multiple mines, which is a common issue in resource regions. The net change in the different LUCC categories in absolute numbers as well as percentage changes relative to the land areas in the baseline year (2001) is discussed. GEF, for example, is working to embed the LDN concept into existing planning frameworks and participatory land-use planning, and is promoting policy work at national levels leading to the resolution of land tenure issues that are obstacles to LDN objectives. In the Rhine dis-trict of Neuss, forest coverage is only about 7%, whereas in Siegen-Wittgenstein, the most thickly wooded district in Germany, forests account for almost 70%. Further examples include the participatory degradation appraisal carried out in Botswana [46]. English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions. This study makes a contribution by combining remotely sensed land degradation dataset and ground-based surveys (ground-truthing) to evaluate the extent of land degradation in Eastern Africa. Land degradation has a major impact on environmental and socio-economic sustainability. Most forests are located in the Eifel, Bergisches Land, Sauerland and [57] also map the geographic extent of areas in SSA affected by land degradation processes over the period of 19822003. The current study combined trend (MannKendall and Sens slope) and breakpoint (bfast) analysis methods to comprehensively examine recent vegetation greening and browning in Mount Elgon at multiple time scales. MannKendall and Sens slope revealed major changes (including deforestation and reforestation), while bfast detected most of the subtle vegetation changes (such as vegetation degradation), especially in the savanna and grasslands in the northeastern parts of Mount Elgon. This involves the use of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) derived from Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer data and the use of high-quality satellite data from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer. UNEP Terms of Use PrivacyReport Project Concern Report Scam Contact Us. In: Greenland DJ, Szabolcs I (eds) Land resilience and sustainable land use. Increasing woody cover and overgrazing in semi-arid ecosystems are known to be the major factors driving land degradation. United Nations Environment Programme ; International Science-Policy Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (2018-02-05). It is therefore necessary to bring together analyses from different approaches to better inform policies. Most prominent causes have appeared to be the processes of soil erosion by water or wind, soil salinization, gully erosion, natural hazards, land use/cover change, agricultural expansion or abandonment, deforestation, urbanisation, grazing intensification, bush encroachment, fuelwood extraction and drought. Significant improvements in vegetation condition due to human interventions were found only at a small scale, mainly on degraded hillside locations, along streams or in areas affected by gully erosion. Berlin, Xu EQ, Zhang HQ, Li MX (2015) Object-based mapping of karst rocky desertification using a support vector machine. To achieve LD neutrality until 2030, spatial planning should focus on hotspot areas and implement sustainable land management practices based on these fine resolution results. - 216.158.226.70. Papers covering any spatial and temporal scale are welcome, and both abrupt and more salient changes and degradation processes are of interest. The hot spots in Kenya are characterized by intensive crop farming that increases pressure on soils. These approaches have been criticized for exaggerating the result on the levels of land degradation, and that they are perception-based and semiquantitative, and therefore not built on objective measurements. Remote Sens Environ 119(1):131147. In: Nkonya E, Mirzabaev A, von Braun J (eds) Economics of land degradation and improvementa global assessment for sustainable development. Country estimates (Table2) show that Tanzania was the most affected country; 41% of its land territory degraded. With booming population growth, agricultural land expands, and natural resource extraction increases, leading to changes in land use and land cover characterized by persistent vegetation greening and browning. Assessments of land degradation in the region vary in methodology and by type of degradation being experienced [30, 52, 61]. Net change in land area of terrestrial biomes between 2001 and 2009 (%). [32] NDVI land degradation dataset, which improves on the GLADIS methodology, is used to estimate biomass productivity decline. Since not all constituencies were affected similarly during declared droughts, studies such as this contribute to devising appropriate context-specific responses aimed at minimising drought impacts on social-ecological systems. Alongside the other two NRW sites in Dormagen and Krefeld-Uerdingen, the plant in Leverkusen represents around 30 percent of global production capacity of Covestro. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jag.2009.08.003, Article Global, Regional, National, Sub-national/Province/District, Locality/Farm/Site, Watershed/Basin/Landscape, Documentation/Manuals, Maps/GIS, Questionnaire/Survey, Global, Regional, National, Sub-national/ Province/ District, Locality/ Farm/ Site, Watershed/Basin/Landscape, Assessment and mapping tools: Land, Soil, Crop, Water, was developed with 5 arc-minute spatial resolution (9x 9 km at the equator). 1996-2023 MDPI (Basel, Switzerland) unless otherwise stated. Land Restoration Training Programme. Using the breakpoint assessment framework developed in this study, the observed degradation based on the TSS-RESTREND showed only 55% agreement with the Rangeland Productivity Monitoring Service (RPMS) data. A common question is: for a certain set of biophysical and socio-economic conditions, what optimal technologies or practices can farmers and other land users introduce to restore degraded land or prevent degradation? In: Reynolds JF, Stafford Smith DM (eds) Global desertification: do humans cause deserts? However, conventional local-based wind erosion modeling is time-consuming and labor-intensive, especially when processing large amounts of geospatial data. Monitoring land degradation (LD) to improve the measurement of the sustainable development goal (SDG) 15.3.1 indicator ("proportion of land that is degraded over a total land area") is key to ensure a more sustainable future. Assessment of land degradation and desertification approaches. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2011.05.012, Berry L (2003) Land degradation in ethiopia: its extent and impact. Monthly precipitation (CenTrends v1.0 extended with CHIRPS2.0) and monthly mean temperatures (CRU TS4.03) were collected for the period of 19402020. The subsequent impacts on socio-economic and biophysical attributes cause society to respond by developing or modifying environmental and economic policies and programmes aimed at preventing, minimizing or mitigating pressures and driving forces. Kirui, O.K., Mirzabaev, A. Monitoring the land degradation of salinized areas facilitates land management and ecological restoration. CABI, Wallingford, pp 99118, Palacio RG, Bisigato AJ, Bouza PJ (2014) Soil erosion in three grazed plant communities in Northeastern Patagonia. https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-4959.00050, Ries JB, Marzolff I (2003) Monitoring of gully erosion in the Central Ebro Basin by largescale aerial photography taken from a remotely controlled blimp. Visual inspections (based on Google Earth) and OLS regression results provide evidence that these can partly be attributed to SLMP interventions. Land degradation assessment Natural vulnerability. The ground-truthing work (field observations and interviews with local communities) described in this study was carried out in seven locations in Ethiopia and eight locations in Tanzania as discussed in the next section. In this two cases, the remote-sensing data showed improvement, while the FGDs showed degradation. Regardless, accurate identification of gullies from satellite images remains an open issue despite the amount of literature addressing this problem. It is, however, notable that these estimates do not take into account the effect of atmospheric fertilization, the rainfall factor and the effect of soil moisture in sparse vegetative areas. Overall, impact assessments show that investments in SLM provide substantial benefits in terms of human well-being and livelihoods. Soil erosion and its related risks have been studied using various models such as Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE), Wind Erosion Equation (WEE) [1], Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) [53], Coordination of Information on the Environment (CORINE) [14], and Pan-European Soil Erosion Risk Assessment (PESERA) [28]. Le et al. Ground-truthing is an expensive and time-consuming exercise. More than half of the state (55.6%) had insignificant change productivity, 10.8% was classified as indeterminant, and 3.2% was considered as agriculture. Irrigated systems in the Niger River basin are also affected by salinity, but its spatial distribution and intensity are not currently known. The GLASOD survey, based on expert opinion, concluded that in the early 1980s about 16.7% of SSA experienced serious human-induced land degradation [35, 60]. Explanation of Special Publication Ispra 2004 No.73 (S.P.I.04.73). For High-quality satellite data from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) is used to evaluate land cover land use change (LUCC) during the 20012009 period. [32] calculate statistically significant long-term trends in NDVI from 19822006 (by main land cover/use types for each country) using data obtained from Global Inventory Modeling and Mapping Studies (GIMMS) which is derived AVHRR. Yet, for landscapes with significant interannual variability, such as the Mount Elgon ecosystem in Kenya and Uganda, characterizing these changes is a difficult task and more robust methods have been recommended. East Africa is comprised of many semi-arid lands that are characterized by insufficient rainfall and the frequent occurrence of droughts. Thirdly, the site chosen consisted of communities (or groups of communities) that span at least 8km2 which is the size of a single pixel in the Le et al. J Arid Environ 47(3):359371. The complexity of land degradation processes requires a triangulation of a variety of data sources and approaches for proper interpretation. The areas affected are also different from those reported by GLASOD and TERRASTAT surveys and by [42]. In: Kapur S, Erahin S (eds) Soil security for ecosystem management: mediterranean soil ecosystems, vol 1. | Legal, The Great Green Wall Initiative: Supporting Resilient Livelihoods and Landscapes in the Sahel, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. Interpretation of aerial photography and satellite imagery such as [21] in China and [47]in Spain. Monitoring land degradation (LD) to improve the measurement of the sustainable development goal (SDG) 15.3.1 indicator (proportion of land that is degraded over a total land area) is key to ensure a more sustainable future. While different combinations of archetypes exist in all the states, the five states of Niger (40.5%), Oyo (29.6%), Kwara (24.4%), Nassarawa (18.6%), and Ekiti (17.6%), have the largest shares of the archetypes. A manual was developed for conducting local-level land degradation and SLM assessment, including tools for participatory rural appraisal and the analysis of livelihoods, costs and benefits, and impacts. 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