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Land Quality, Environmental Degradation, and Sustainable Land Management in Agricultural Landscapes

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Agriculture".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2022) | Viewed by 14693

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Special Issue Editor

Dr. Remus Pravalie

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Guest Editor

Faculty of Geography, University of Bucharest, 1 Nicolae Bălcescu str., 010041 Bucharest, Romania
Interests: land degradation; desertification; climate change; environmental pollution; environmental disturbances; environmental impact assessment; sustainable land management

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Lands, both agricultural and non-agricultural, are crucial for human wellbeing and for the stability of the Earth’s climate system. Agricultural land is of vital importance for food production and food security, considering that most of the world's food comes from land, and only a tiny share from oceans and seas. These terrestrial systems are also fundamental for combating global climate change, since agricultural soils constitute a major carbon pool globally.

However, these key attributes of agricultural lands continue to be severely altered in many regions of the world, amid the emergence or intensification of multiple land degradation pathways, due to climate change and various anthropogenic pressures. These pathways correspond to a wide spectrum of environmental processes that cause a long-term decline in agricultural productivity and carbon sequestration capacity of lands. Consequently, the current widespread trend of land degradation is significantly eroding humanity’s chances to meet its goals in terms of food security, climate stability, and sustainable development, throughout this century.

In this context, the main objective of this Special Issue is to create new knowledge on the multiple forms of agricultural land degradation, which currently alter agricultural landscapes from local to global scale. At the same time, this Special Issue aims to address practical solutions for the protection, restoration, and rehabilitation of degraded lands, which can combat land degradative conditions and ensure a land degradation-neutral world, according to the current United Nations policies.

We therefore invite researchers to submit papers (original research articles, letters, short communications, commentaries or reviews) that tackle the following or other similar general topics:

Causes (climatic and anthropogenic) of land degradation processes;
Land degradation pathways/processes (water erosion, wind erosion, soil salinization, soil pollution, soil organic carbon loss, soil aridification, desertification etc) in agricultural systems;
Agricultural impacts (regarding agricultural yields, food security, food production sustainability, etc.) of land degradation;
Climate impacts (through soil carbon losses) of degraded agricultural lands;
Sustainable measures/practices for the stabilization (protection, restoration and rehabilitation) of agricultural lands.

Dr. Remus Pravalie
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

land degradation processes
water erosion
wind erosion
soil salinization
soil pollution
soil organic carbon loss
soil aridification
desertification
land agricultural productivity
food security
climate stability
control measures

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

22 pages, 90026 KiB

Open AccessArticle

One Century of Pasture Dynamics in a Hilly Area of Eastern Europe, as Revealed by the Land-Use Change Approach

by Georgiana Văculișteanu, Silviu Costel Doru, Nicușor Necula, Mihai Niculiță and Mihai Ciprian Mărgărint

Sustainability 2023, 15(1), 406; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15010406 - 27 Dec 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1950

Abstract

Land use is paramount to sustainable development, and in the past, important changes happened under the influence of various factors. Revealing these changes in a meaningful manner, not just as total statistics but also as fluxes and at a spatial level, allows us to detect and associate them with the factors involved. We show a study case in Iași County, Romania, using a raster approach to change detection for a land-use-type database that extends to the 1920s. The database was created from topographic, remote sensing, and field data collected between 1920 and 2006, with five intervals between 1960, 1980, 1990, and 2000, starting from CORINE Land Cover data. These periods mark the socio-political and natural changes in the study area. The change detection results are well matched with the identified drivers and their spatial distribution. The fluctuations between land-use types provide a good way to create drivers’ associations. Our analysis can be easily applied to any other concerned areas and could be used as base references for any legislative intention to determine land-use-type changes because it can be learned from past conversions with regard to failures or examples of good practice. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Land Quality, Environmental Degradation, and Sustainable Land Management in Agricultural Landscapes)

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23 pages, 7754 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Climate Warming-Induced Changes in Plant Phenology in the Most Important Agricultural Region of Romania

by Georgeta Bandoc, Adrian Piticar, Cristian Patriche, Bogdan Roșca and Elena Dragomir

Sustainability 2022, 14(5), 2776; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14052776 - 26 Feb 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2654

Abstract

Changes in plant phenology are a direct indicator of climate change and can produce important consequences for agricultural and ecological systems. This study analyzes changes in plant phenology in the 1961–2010 period (for both the entire interval and in three successive multi-decades: 1961–1990, 1971–2000 and 1981–2010) in southern and southeastern Romania, the country’s most important agricultural region. The analysis is based on mean monthly air temperature values collected from 24 regional weather stations, which were used for extracting the length (number of days) of phenophases (growing season onset, budding–leafing, flowering, fruiting, maturing, dissemination of seeds, start of leaf loss, end of leaf loss) and of the overall climatic growing season (CGS, which includes all phenophases), by means of the histophenogram method. Using a number of reliable statistical tools (Mann–Kendall test, Sen’s slope estimator and the regression method) for exploring annual trends and net (total) changes in the length of the phenological periods, as well as for detecting the climate—growing season statistical relationships, our results revealed complex phenology changes and a strong response in phenological dynamics to climate warming. Essentially, a lengthening of all phenophases (maximal in the maturing period, in terms of statistical significance and magnitude of trends—on average 0.48 days/yr/24 days net change in the 1961–2010 period, or even 0.94 days/yr/28 days net change in the 1971–2000 sub-period) was noticed, except for the fruiting and dissemination phenophases, which were dominated by negative trends in the number of days, but partially statistically significant (at a confidence level threshold of at least 90%). The CGS exhibited overall increasing trends, with an average of 0.21 days/yr/11 days net change in the 1961–2010 interval, and even of 0.90 days/yr/27 days net change in the 1981–2010 sub-period. Moreover, based on the slope values obtained upon application of a linear regression to mean temperature and CGS, we discovered that a 1 °C increase in climate warming accounted for a remarkable lengthening of the CGS, on average of 14 days between 1961 and 2010, and of 16 days between 1981 and 2010. Our results can help improve the adaptation of agroecological systems to future climate change. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Land Quality, Environmental Degradation, and Sustainable Land Management in Agricultural Landscapes)

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22 pages, 2192 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Linking Smallholder Farmers to the Heilongjiang Province Crop Rotation Project: Assessing the Impact on Production and Well-Being

by Zheng Cai, Shengsheng Li, Guoming Du and Ruhao Xue

Sustainability 2022, 14(1), 38; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14010038 - 21 Dec 2021

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3962

Abstract

Food security and environmental protection—led by sustainable agricultural development—are key development goals of Heilongjiang Province. One of the main challenges facing the Heilongjiang Province is improving soil and livelihood by integrating smallholder farmers into the pilot crop rotation project. This paper investigates a comprehensive project—the new crop rotation pilot project in Heilongjiang (NCRPPH)—which aims to improve the livelihood of the pilot participants by involving smallholder farmers in the pilot crop rotation program and connecting them with the food industry through farmers’ cooperatives. This paper analyzes the impact of the NCRPPH on farmers’ crop rotation, grain yield, multi-agent cooperation, food security, and education based on data collected in 2019 and other retrospective information. The instrumental variable method and three different estimation strategies are used to solve the endogenous problem. The results show that the project has a vast and positive impact on the gross and net value of grain production per hectare and the share of products sold to food manufacturers through cooperatives. Regardless of the farm size, farmers have equal opportunities from which they can benefit. In addition, our analysis shows that the NCRPPH improves the educational situation and food security without affecting crop rotation practices. Finally, our research proves the effectiveness of this project. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Land Quality, Environmental Degradation, and Sustainable Land Management in Agricultural Landscapes)

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20 pages, 33782 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Evaluating Trends of Land Productivity Change and Their Causes in the Han River Basin, China: In Support of SDG Indicator 15.3.1

by Yanxia Hu, Changqing Wang, Xingxiu Yu and Shengzhou Yin

Sustainability 2021, 13(24), 13664; https://doi.org/10.3390/su132413664 - 10 Dec 2021

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2591

Abstract

The Han River Basin is a main agricultural production area and a water source for the middle route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project in China. Over the past 20 years, human exploitation and ecological construction have disturbed the sustainability of land productivity in the Han River Basin. Theil–Sen trend analysis, Mann–Kendall statistical test, and Hurst index methods were applied to examine spatial–temporal trends and sustainability characteristics of land net primary productivity (NPP) change in the Han River Basin from 2001 to 2019 using MOD17A3 NPP product, natural, and socio-economic data obtained from Google Earth Engine (GEE). The findings demonstrated that the interannual variation of land NPP exhibited a fluctuating upward trend, with a more pronounced growth rate from 2001 to 2010 than from 2011 to 2019. The spatial heterogeneity of land NPP was evident, with high values in the west and low values in the east. Of the basin area, 57.82% presented a significant increase in land NPP, while only 0.96% showed a significant decrease. In the future, land NPP in the Han River Basin will present sustained growth. The results were also compared with Trends.Earth’s calculations for the SDG 15.3.1 sub-indicator of land productivity. In addition, the spatial heterogeneity of factors influencing land NPP change was explored using a multiscale geographically weighted regression (MGWR) model. Precipitation and population count were the dominant factors in most regions. Besides, precipitation, population count, and human modification all exhibited inhibitory effects on the increase in land NPP except for elevation. The research can provide a scientific basis for tracking land degradation neutrality (LDN) progress and achieving sustainable socio-ecological development of the Han River Basin. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Land Quality, Environmental Degradation, and Sustainable Land Management in Agricultural Landscapes)

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16 pages, 2365 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Evaluation System Transformation of Multi-Scale Cultivated Land Quality and Analysis of Its Spatio-Temporal Variability

by Yinshuai Li, Chunyan Chang, Yongchang Zhao, Zhuoran Wang, Tao Li, Jianwei Li, Jiacong Dou, Ruibin Fan, Qiyao Wang, Jingwen Yang, Shuwei Zhang and Gengxing Zhao

Sustainability 2021, 13(18), 10100; https://doi.org/10.3390/su131810100 - 9 Sep 2021

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2067

Abstract

To master the transformation method and spatio-temporal variation characteristics of cultivated land quality at multiple scales, this paper constructed three spatial scales (Laixi city, Qingdao city, and Shandong province) and two temporal scales (the second survey (2007) and the third survey (2020)), and used a linear model to transform the evaluation system. Descriptive statistics, area statistics, spatial distribution, and aggregation analysis were used to explore the spatial scale variability, and the dynamic variation characteristics were analyzed. The results showed that (1) the R² of scale transformation models are more than 0.826, which has a simple structure and strong universality; (2) with the administrative scale increases, the evaluation units’ number decreases, the spatial distribution is generally similar but progressively approximate, the high and low land levels gradually change to medium-level land, and the spatial aggregation degree is county-scale > provincial-scale > city-scale, with significant scale effect; and (3) in the past ten years, the average grade has increased from 6.26 to 6.13 in Laixi city, but still has much room for development. This study puts forward a method of spatio-temporal scale transformation and scale effect analysis for cultivated land quality, which has positive significance for improving the evaluation system, promoting land protection, and regional sustainable development. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Land Quality, Environmental Degradation, and Sustainable Land Management in Agricultural Landscapes)

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