Thumbnail Image

The global distribution of human-induced land degradation and areas at risk

SOLAW21 Technical background report

Year of publication 2023

Place of publication Rome, Italy ;

Pages 60 p.

Author Coppus, R.;

Publisher FAO ;

Product type Book (stand-alone)

ISBN 978-92-5-137166-4

Synopsis (short abstract) There is a strong correlation between water-related issues and human-induced land degradation: increased water stress and decreased freshwater availability are prominent in large contiguous degraded areas worldwide. Generally accepted indicators, such as soil erosion or land productivity, are less common. Cropland is a major contributor to global human-induced land degradation. The degree to which irrigated land is degraded suggests widespread unsustainable agricultural practices and intense pressures. The integration of three dimensions of land degradation – biophysical status, trends and drivers – provides us with insight into the spatial relationships between land conditions, degradation processes and pressures from human activities. The land degradation analysis verifies whether a decline in ecosystem services is of anthropogenic origin and thus can be classified as human-induced land degradation. The analysis of areas at risk does not discriminate between human and natural causes but estimates the potential impact of deteriorating ecosystem services.

Cite this content as:

Coppus, R. 2023. The global distribution of human-induced land degradation and areas at risk – SOLAW21 Technical background report. Rome, FAO.




https://doi.org/10.4060/cc2843en

Language English

Also available in:
No results found.

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Thumbnail Image
    Article
    A comprehensive quantification of global nitrous oxide sources and sinks
    Nature, published on 07 October 2020, Volume 586, pages 248–256
    2020
    Also available in:
    No results found.
    Nitrous oxide (N2O), like carbon dioxide, is a long-lived greenhouse gas that accumulates in the atmosphere. Over the past 150 years, increasing atmospheric N2O concentrations have contributed to stratospheric ozone depletion1 and climate change2, with the current rate of increase estimated at 2 per cent per decade. Existing national inventories do not provide a full picture of N2O emissions, owing to their omission of natural sources and limitations in methodology for attributing anthropogenic sources. Here we present a global N2O inventory that incorporates both natural and anthropogenic sources and accounts for the interaction between nitrogen additions and the biochemical processes that control N2O emissions. We use bottom-up (inventory, statistical extrapolation of flux measurements, process based land and ocean modelling) and top-down (atmospheric inversion) approaches to provide a comprehensive quantification of global N2O sources and sinks resulting from 21 natural and human sectors between 1980 and 2016. Global N2O emissions were 17.0 (minimum–maximum estimates: 12.2–23.5) teragrams of nitrogen per year (bottom-up) and 16.9 (15.9–17.7) teragrams of nitrogen per year (top-down) between 2007 and 2016. Global human-induced emissions, which are dominated by nitrogen additions to croplands, increased by 30% over the past four decades to 7.3 (4.2–11.4) teragrams of nitrogen per year. This increase was mainly responsible for the growth in the atmospheric burden. Our findings point to growing N2O emissions in emerging economies—particularly Brazil, China and India. Analysis of process-based model estimates reveals an emerging N2O–climate feedback resulting from interactions between nitrogen additions and climate change. The recent growth in N2O emissions exceeds some of the highest projected emission scenarios3,4, underscoring the urgency to mitigate N2O emissions.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Document
    Land Degradation Assessment in Drylands. Manual for Local Level Assessment of Land Degradation and Sustainable Land Management. Part 1
    Planning and methodological approach, analysis and reporting
    2016
    Also available in:
    No results found.
    This local level land resources assessment methodology (LADA-Local) was produced within the Land Degradation Assessment in Drylands (LADA) project. See Box 1 for the LADA project objectives and outcomes and the website www.fao.org/nr/lada for further information. The main purpose of LADA-Local is to provide a standard methodological approach and tool-kit for the assessment of land degradation processes, their causes and impacts at local1 level in collabor ation with local stakeholders and communities. The focus is on human-induced land degradation; however, natural degradation processes are also addressed. For a more balanced and complete understanding, the approach also assesses the extent to which land resources (soil, vegetation, water) and landscapes/ecosystems are being conserved and/or improved by sustainable land management (SLM) practices.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Document
    Land Degradation Assessment in Drylands: Manual for Local Level Assessment of Land Degradation and Sustainable Land Management. Part 2
    Field methodology and tools
    2016
    Also available in:
    No results found.
    This local level land resources assessment methodology (LADA-Local) was produced within the Land Degradation Assessment in Drylands (LADA) project. See Box 1 for the LADA project objectives and outcomes and the website www.fao.org/nr/lada for further information. The main purpose of LADA-Local is to provide a standard methodological approach and tool-kit for the assessment of land degradation processes, their causes and impacts at local1 level in collabor ation with local stakeholders and communities. The focus is on human-induced land degradation; however, natural degradation processes are also addressed. For a more balanced and complete understanding, the approach also assesses the extent to which land resources (soil, vegetation, water) and landscapes/ecosystems are being conserved and/or improved by sustainable land management (SLM) practices.
Show more

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

No results found.