Natural and human factors exert a profound impact on the degradation of rangelands, human effects being the most significant factor in increasing the severity of deterioration. This occurs through agricultural expansion at the expense of rangelands, and with the number of domestic and wildlife animals exceeding the natural carrying capacity. This raises concerns about the ongoing sustainability of these land resources, as well as the sustainability of traditional pastoral land practices. Rangelands require effective management, which is dependent upon accurate and timely monitoring data to support the assessment of rangeland deterioration. Natural rangelands provide one of the significant pillars of support for the Libyan national economy. Despite the important role of rangeland in Libya from both economic and environmental perspectives, the vegetation cover of Libyan rangeland has changed adversely qualitatively and quantitatively over the past four decades. Ground-based observation methods are widely used to assess rangeland degradation in Libya. However, multi-temporal observations are often not integrated nor repeatable, making it difficult for rangeland managers to detect degradation consistently. Field study costs are also significantly high in comparison with their accuracy and reliability, both in terms of the time and resources required. Remote-sensing approaches offer the advantage of spanning large geographical areas with multiple spatial, spectral and temporal resolutions. These data can play a significant role in rangeland monitoring, permitting observation, monitoring and prediction of vegetation changes, productivity assessment, fire extent, vegetation and soil moisture measurement and quantifying the proliferation of invasive plant species. This paper reviews the factors causing rangeland degradation in Libya, identifying appropriate remote-sensing methods that can be used to implement appropriate monitoring procedures.

中文翻译：

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利比亚监测牧场退化的潜在方法综述

自然和人为因素对牧场的退化产生深远影响，人为影响是加剧退化严重程度的最重要因素。这是通过农业扩张以牺牲牧场为代价的，家畜和野生动物的数量超过了自然承载力。这引起人们对这些土地资源的持续可持续性以及传统牧民土地实践的可持续性的关注。牧场需要有效的管理，这取决于准确，及时的监测数据，以支持对牧场恶化的评估。自然牧场是支持利比亚国民经济的重要支柱之一。尽管从经济和环境的角度来看，牧场在利比亚发挥着重要作用，在过去的四十年中，利比亚牧场的植被覆盖在质量和数量上均发生了不利变化。地面观测方法被广泛用于评估利比亚的牧场退化。但是，多时相观测通常不完整也不可重复，因此牧场管理者很难一致地检测退化。与所需的时间和资源相比，与其准确性和可靠性相比，实地研究成本也很高。遥感方法的优势是可以跨越具有多个空间，光谱和时间分辨率的广阔地理区域。这些数据在牧场监测，观察，监测和预测植被变化，生产力评估，火灾程度，植被和土壤湿度的测量并量化入侵植物的繁殖。本文回顾了造成利比亚牧场退化的因素，并确定了可用于实施适当监测程序的适当遥感方法。