Cost Of Land Degradation Research Articles

Original

Land degradation has been a subject of academic research all across the world and still an important global issue in the twenty-first century. Land is an essential resource that is degraded day by day through some major factors like natural, anthropogenic and climatic factors. It is the principal basis for human well-being and livelihood as it provides us food, shelter, and multiple other ecosystem services. Land degradation has become a severe environmental problem. It is observed that a complex interplay between a variety of interrelated processes leads to what we defined as land degradation. It occurs in the form of deforestation, desertification, rapid changes in climatic conditions, waterlogging, salinization, erosion, and loss of organic matter components, etc. But we can save our land or manage our land from degradation by identifying sustainable land management practices and by adopting a precise methodology for assessing land degradation. The major objectives of this study are to address the problems of land degradation and to explore sustainable land management practices through different researches. This paper surveys the research works done on this theme and points out the key drivers of land degradation across the world, the social, economic and environmental costs of land degradation, the extent and severity of global land degradation and the appropriate methods for assessment of land degradation at global level and opportunities for improvement.

The Economics of Desertification, Land Degradation, and Drought Toward an Integrated Global Assessment

Land degradation has not been comprehensively addressed at the global level or in developing countries. A suitable economic framework that could guide investments and institutional action is lacking. This study aims to overcome this deficiency and to provide a framework for a global assessment based on a consideration of the costs of action versus inaction regarding desertification, land degradation, and drought (DLDD). Most of the studies on the costs of land degradation (mainly limited to soil erosion) give cost estimates of less than 1 percent up to about 10 percent of the agricultural gross domestic product (GDP) for various countries worldwide. But the indirect costs of DLDD on the economy (national income), as well as their socioeconomic consequences (particularly poverty impacts), must be accounted for, too. Despite the numerous challenges, a global assessment of the costs of action and inaction against DLDD is possible, urgent, and necessary. This study provides a framework for such a global assessment and provides insights from some related country studies.

Analyzing the economic impacts of land use change: a framework and a case study for the Miombo woodlands, Zambia

One of the causes of unsustainable land management is a general lack of understanding of the economic impacts of land use change. This article presents a methodological framework for analyzing the economic costs of land degradation and the benefits of sustainable land management (SLM). The framework comprises three complementary types of assessment: partial valuation, total valuation, and impact assessment. Total valuation allows for static assessment of selected economic benefits from a certain land use, whereas impact assessment deals with all economic benefits provided under certain land use. The third approach is dynamic and allows for analyzing the costs and benefits related to changes in land use. The framework is demonstrated by means of three case studies on the impacts of land use change in the Zambian Miombo woodland ecosystem. The three different approaches are applied to assess the benefits of SLM in the Miombo woodlands.

Extent and Costs of Environmental Degradation in Sriramsagar Project Command Area: Integration with Cost Benefit Analysis

This paper focuses to assess the costs of degradation due to salinity and Waterlogging by loss of production method in the Sriramsagar Project (SRSP) command area of Andhra Pradesh. The loss of production method is used at the aggregate level to find out the per hectare loss of productivity of crops in this command area. The major findings of the study show that the Benefit Cost Ratio (BCR) is reduced to 2.15 from earlier estimated BCR of 2.39 after integration of the effects of waterlogging and salinity into the Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA). Secondly, the total value of agricultural output decreased up to a maximum of 5 per cent, when the total cost of land degradation due to salinity and waterlogging are included. It is feared that when the impacts of other forms of land degradation are integrated with the CBA, the BCR may come down below the minimum required ratio.