Priorities in the Development of the Research Strategy for Arid Lands of the World

Abstract

The assessment of the situation of global desertification emphasizes the need for information characterizing the global progress of arid degradation and the damage caused by it. Amid the current climate warming, more regions will be affected by droughts, which compromise the sustainability of degrading lands. Concurrently, the drought frequency intensely increases in arid regions. The efforts of scientists and practical workers over the past 25 years, which is reflected in the journal Arid Ecosystems, made it possible to obtain final information about the degradation patterns of soils, vegetation, and animal life. Based on the scientific achievements in the field of anthropogenic dynamics of desertification processes and the formation of the resource-study potential of individual components of arid ecosystems, it is necessary to develop a sound approach to the strategy and to identify implementation methods for the presented concepts, programs, and projects. The generalizations of theoretical findings in the field of the soil-cover productivity and sustainability restoration made it possible to present a fundamental research concept for arid lands of the world in the form of an independent concept of a “green economy”. Its main distinctive feature is a differentiation of the effects caused by the human factor on the natural and medical–biological blocks. Assessment of the effects caused by the social situation of people living under the conditions of droughts, hot winds, and climate warming is an integral part of the second block.