write four points for land degradation today
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1.Land degradation is the major consequences of direct interference of human activities in the natural phenomenon
2. Land degradation causes:-Deforestation is taking place at a faster rate due to increasing demands of timber, fuel and forest products which results into degradation of land resources.
3.Soil erosion is one of the factors responsible for lad degradation. It can be prevented by formation of ridge and furrow during irrigation which lessens run off.
4.Loss of natural fertility of soil because of loss of nutrients results in land degradation.
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(1)Land Degradation Measures
There are four main ways of looking at land degradation and its impact on the environment around it:
A temporary or permanent decline in the productive capacity of the land. This can be seen through a loss of biomass, a loss of actual productivity or in potential productivity, or a loss or change in vegetative cover and soil nutrients.
Action in the land's capacity to provide resources for human livelihoods. This can be measured from a base line of past land use.
Loss of biodiversity: A loss of range of species or ecosystem complexity as a decline in the environmental quality.
Shifting ecological risk: increased vulnerability of the environment or people to destruction or crisis. This is measured through a base line in the form of pre-existing risk of crisis or destruction.
A problem with defining land degradation is that what one group of people might view as degradation, others might view as a benefit or opportunity. For example, planting crops at a location with heavy rainfall and steep slopes would create scientific and environmental concern regarding the risk of soil erosion by water, yet farmers could view the location as a favourable one for high crop yields.
(3)Types
In addition to the usual types of land degradation that have been known for centuries (water, wind and mechanical erosion, physical, chemical and biological degradation), four other types have emerged in the last 50 years:
●Pollution, often chemical, due to agricultural, industrial, mining or commercial activities;
●Loss of arable land due to urban construction, road building, land conversion, agricultural expansion, etc.;
●Artificial radioactivity, sometimes accidental;
●Land-use constraints associated with armed conflicts.
Overall, more than 36 types of land degradation can be assessed. All are induced or aggravated by human activities, e.g. sheet erosion, silting, aridification, salinization, urbanization, etc.
(3)Causes
Overgrazing by livestock can lead to land degradation
Land degradation caused by mining as it cause landslides Land degradation is a global problem largely related to agricultural use. Causes include:
●Land clearance, such as clearcutting and deforestation
●Agricultural depletion of soil nutrients through poor farming practices
●Livestock including overgrazing and overdrafting
●Inappropriate irrigation and overdrafting
●Urban sprawl and commercial development
●Vehicle off-roading
●Quarrying of stone, sand, ore and minerals
●Increase in field size due to economies of scale, reducing shelter for wildlife, as hedgerows and copses disappear
●Exposure of naked soil after harvesting by heavy equipment
●Monoculture, destabilizing the local ecosystem
●Dumping of non-biodegradable trash, such as plastics
●Invasive Species
●Soil degradation
(4)Effects
Soil erosion in a wheat field near Pullman, US
Overcutting of vegetation occurs when people cut forests, woodlands and shrublands—to obtain timber, fuelwood and other products—at a pace exceeding the rate of natural regrowth. This is frequent in semi-arid environments, where fuelwood shortages are often severe.
Overgrazing is the grazing of natural pastures at stocking intensities above the livestock carrying capacity; the resulting decrease in the vegetation cover is a leading cause of wind and water erosion. It is a significant factor in Afghanistan. The growing population pressure, during 1980-1990, has led to decreases in the already small areas of agricultural land per person in six out of eight countries (14% for India and 21% for Pakistan).
Population pressure also operates through other mechanisms. Improper agricultural practices, for instance, occur only under constraints such as the saturation of good lands under population pressure which leads settlers to cultivate too shallow or too steep soils, plough fallow land before it has recovered its fertility, or attempt to obtain multiple crops by irrigating unsuitable soils.
High population density is not always related to land degradation. Rather, it is the practices of the human population that can cause a landscape to become degraded. Populations can be a benefit to the land and make it more productive than it is in its natural state. Land degradation is an important factor of internal displacement in many African and Asian countries.
Severe land degradation affects a significant portion of the Earth's arable lands, decreasing the wealth and economic development of nations. As the land resource base becomes less productive, food security is compromised and competition for dwindling resources increases, the seeds of famine and potential conflict are sown.