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The Role of Soils in Land Degradation Assessment: A Review

  • DEGRADATION, REHABILITATION, AND CONSERVATION OF SOILS
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Abstract

Within the framework of the existing concepts of land degradation assessment, the main ideas about its causes and consequences are formulated, methodological provisions for studying the intensity of degradation processes are defined, and specific methods for assessing the economic component of degradation are developed. The problem of economic assessment of land degradation is complicated by differences in understanding of the nature of degradation processes and the role of soils in them. Soil indicators play the most significant role in the economic assessment of damage from land degradation. However, this methodology does not actually involve the use of modern concepts of ecosystem services. On the contrary, the methodology of land degradation economics, which uses a wide range of ecosystem services, largely ignores the need to take into account the dynamics of soil properties. The development of a unified methodology will solve many problems, among which an important place is occupied by the need to avoid legally regulated formulaic assessments of degradation.

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Notes

  1. The differences in estimates can be explained by the differences in the applied methodology and in the number of evaluated ecosystem components [35].

  2. The concepts of ecosystem soil services and soil services are synonymous in this work.

  3. Note that in the scientific literature one can find original works on the assessment of the value of soils solely on the basis of their properties [9, 26], as well as attempts to integrate these approaches into the TEV rating system [3].

  4. The concepts of soil and land are not identical [27] and should not be confused.

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Funding

This work was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, project no. 19-29-05021_mk.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Leninskie Gory 1, 119991, Moscow, Russia

    E. V. Tsvetnov, O. A. Makarov & O. B. Tsvetnova

  2. Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), Vernadsky prosp. 82, 119571, Moscow, Russia

    A. S. Strokov

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  1. E. V. Tsvetnov
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Correspondence to E. V. Tsvetnov.

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Translated by D. Konyushkov

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Tsvetnov, E.V., Makarov, O.A., Strokov, A.S. et al. The Role of Soils in Land Degradation Assessment: A Review. Eurasian Soil Sc. 54, 441–447 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1064229321030169

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