Classification of processes that cause land degradation

Abstract

It is highlighted that the current state of agricultural landscapes is characterized by a significant increase in the area of eroded arable land, which amounts to about 11 million hectares, and eroded agricultural lands — more than 13 million hectares (32.0% of their total area). Modern land-tenancy relations do not contribute to the implementation of measures to protect and increase soil fertility and have a negative effect on their fertility. In the process of using the soil cover, the needs and requirements of the ecobalance are ignored, as a result of which agricultural land is exhaustingly exploited. Soils lose a significant part of humus and such trends continue. Degradation processes are most observed in soils where agricultural techniques were violated, unfounded changes in the hydrological regime of the territory were carried out by irrigation and drainage meliorations, pollution by agrochemicals and industrial emissions occurred, which led to the removal of significant areas of productive land from active agricultural use. It has been established that the process of pollution manifests itself differently and depends on the types of harmful substances, their concentration in the soil environment and toxicity, on the natural properties and characteristics of the soil cover. It is proposed that the suitability of the soils of the contaminated lands should reflect the natural and acquired over time properties of their quality state. The combination of these properties is possible on the basis of establishing the boundaries of contaminated land on soil maps. This will make it possible to determine the area, composition of agricultural production groups and characteristics of the natural state of contaminated soils, humus content, depth of humus profiles, granulometric composition, etc. The established processes that cause various types of degradation require further processing of the parameters of indicators of crisis phenomena. It is emphasized that in the classification of processes leading to the degradation of agricultural lands, it is necessary to pay attention to the economic activity that leads to soil degradation and which is reflected in the dynamics of the structure of cultivated areas; spread of phytoviruses of different taxonomic groups in agricultural plants, weeds, wild plants and soil of different ecological regions of Ukraine; handling of waste of I–IV hazard classes.