What does land degradation mean?
What does land degradation mean?
Land degradation is the reduction or loss of the biological or economic productivity and complexity of rain—fed cropland, irrigated cropland, or range, pasture, forest or woodlands resulting from natural processes, land uses or other human activities and habitation patterns such as land contamination, soil erosion and …
What is land degradation examples?
Land degradation is a global problem largely related to agricultural use, deforestation and climate change. Causes include: Land clearance, such as clearcutting and deforestation. Agricultural depletion of soil nutrients through poor farming practices. Livestock including overgrazing and overdrafting.
What is land degradation and why is it important?
Main Issue Land degradation—the deterioration or loss of the productive capacity of the soils for present and future—is a global challenge that affects everyone through food insecurity, higher food prices, climate change, environmental hazards, and the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services.
Why is land degradation?
Land degradation is caused by multiple forces, including extreme weather conditions, particularly drought. It is also caused by human activities that pollute or degrade the quality of soils and land utility. Land degradation and desertification can affect human health through complex pathways.
What are causes of land degradation?
Nine Main Causes of Land Degradation are as follows:
- Deforestation: Forests play an important role in maintaining fertility of soil by shedding their leaves which contain many nutrients.
- Excessive Use of Fertilizers and Pesticides:
- Overgrazing:
- Salination:
- Water-logging:
- Desertification:
- Soil erosion:
- Wasteland:
What are the 5 causes of land degradation?
The major causes of land degradation include, land clearance poor farming practices, overgrazing, inappropriate irrigation, urban sprawl, and commercial development, land pollution including industrial waste and quarrying of stone, sand and minerals.
Why does land degradation occur?
Water erosion, wind erosion, loss of vegetation, and salinity are the major causes of land degradation with slightly more than 50 percent of the total rural land area requiring some form of treatment because of these problems (6).
Who is responsible for land degradation?
The factors responsible for degradation of land include excessive exploitation of land, deforestation, clearing fertile land for settlements, slashing and burning the trees for agriculture, abandoned mining sites and surface mining, toxicity in the landfill, untreated industrial effluents and concretisation.
Where does land degradation occur?
It is in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and South and Central America that the problem is growing most rapidly. But climate change, especially where droughts and forest fires are becoming more frequent, can cause land degradation even in affluent places such as California and Australia.
What are the two causes of land degradation?
What do you mean by land degradation explain any four causes of land degradation?
[1] Land clearance, such as clearcutting and deforestation. [2] Agricultural depletion of soil nutrients through poor farming practices. [3] Livestock including overgrazing and overdrafting. [4] Inappropriate irrigation and overdrafting.
How does land degradation work?
What are the causes of land degradation?
– ommegaonline.org. Soil contamination in particular might be caused by Oil spills,Mining and activities by other heavy industries,Acid rain,Agrochemicals,such as pesticides,herbicides and fertilizers,Industrial accidents,…
What is land degradation and how does it affect ecosystems?
Land degradation occurs when the crucial ecosystem processes are disturbed in a negative way due to use of land, causing lost of vegetation cover, and soil fertility affecting the main processes and functions of the ecosystems.
What are the measures to reduce land degradation?
View Full Answer. Measures for reduction of Land degradation: 1. Reduction in use of fertilizers and pesticides and encourage organic farming. 2. Proper disposal of solid waste like domestic waste in cities and towns. Methods like disposal through incinerators can be used and ensuring no release of toxic gases.
What is the process of land degradation?
Land degradation. Land degradation is a process in which the value of the biophysical environment is affected by a combination of human-induced processes acting upon the land.
