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Soil Degradation, Conservation and Remediation pp 1–43Cite as

Soil Resources and Soil Degradation

Abstract

Including rocky surfaces, deserts, and ice-covered areas, there is 130,575,894 km2 land area in the globe. About 38.5 million km2 (29.45 % of the earth’s ice-free land surface) is too dry for human habitation, and about 20.2 million km2 (15.46 %) of the land occuring in the cold tundra zone is not much suitable for normal agriculture. Saline and alkaline soils occur in 3,105,000 km2 (2.4 % of the land surface), and soil acidity affects 18,420,100 km2 (14.1 % of the total land). Only about 12 % of the land surface is suitable for food and fiber production, 24 % is grazing land, and about 31 % is forestland; the remaining 33 % has many constraints for most uses. The lands are classified into 8 land capability classes based on their productivity, limitations, climate, and soil conservation requirements. Class I land is the most suitable agricultural land, and Classes VII to VIII are not suited for cultivation. Agricultural soils are again classified into nine land quality classes based on the integration of three soil performance classes and three soil resilience classes. Land quality I is the prime land. Suitability of cropping and productivity gradually decrease from Class I to Class IX. The global arable land area is estimated to be 1.351 billion hectares, and 38 % of the arable land has been degraded at variable intensities. The principal cause of soil degradation is the land mismanagement. GLASOD identified five main causes of soil degradation, including deforestation, overgrazing, mismanagement of agricultural land, overexploitation of vegetation, and (bio-) industrial activities. There are five types of land/soil degradation: water erosion, wind erosion, physical deterioration, chemical deterioration, and degradation of biological activity. With this background, ten “laws of sustainable soil management” have been suggested.

Keywords

  • Soil Quality
  • Land Degradation
  • Soil Degradation
  • Tropical Deforestation
  • Soil Moisture Regime

These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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  1. Department of Soil Science, University of Chittagong, Chittagong, Bangladesh

    Khan Towhid Osman

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Osman, K.T. (2014). Soil Resources and Soil Degradation. In: Soil Degradation, Conservation and Remediation. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7590-9_1

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