Land Degradation: Creation and DestructionThis up-to-date, second edition of Land Degradation explores substantial decreases in the land's biological productivity or usefulness to humans due to human activities. Case studies_including tourist impacts in Europe, the environmental footprints of urban areas, wetland drainage for agriculture in the American Midwest, run-on farming in the Negev, land degradation in the Amazon Basin, and irrigation in Egypt_cover the history of land degradation, identify the level of human responsibility in transforming natural landscapes into sustainable agro-ecosystems, look at local and regional effects of human interactions with the environment, and reveal both negative and positive aspects of land modification. Extensively illustrated, Land Degradation can be used as the primary text in a course of the same name or as a supplement in courses covering land use, environmental change, and sustainability. |
Contents
Human and Physical Interactions | 1 |
Its Definition | 2 |
Longterm Nonreversible and Shortterm Reversible Land Degradation | 4 |
Time | 6 |
Human Causes of Degradation | 13 |
The Ecological Transition | 15 |
Intentional and Unintentional Change | 17 |
The Limitations of Economic Evaluation | 20 |
Terrace Systems | 150 |
Intensive Animal Husbandry | 155 |
Parks Wildlife and Nature Protection | 159 |
Summary | 161 |
Regional and Global Examples | 163 |
Satisfying the Needs of Urban Areas | 165 |
Energy | 168 |
Building Materials | 171 |
Summary | 23 |
2 Land Use and Degradation in Historical Perspective | 25 |
Runon Farming in the Negev | 29 |
Irrigation in the Mesopotamian Lowland | 40 |
Summary | 50 |
3 The Physical Domain and Land Degradation | 53 |
Frequency Magnitude and Variability | 55 |
The GeologicGeomorphologic Domain | 58 |
The Geomorphologic Setting | 62 |
Agriculture | 71 |
Synthesis | 74 |
4 Human Causes of Land Degradation | 77 |
Environmental Deficiencies | 79 |
Human Factors Promoting Land Degradation | 81 |
Unperceived Distant Impacts | 82 |
Present Gain Future Pain | 83 |
Privileging Money Not Nature | 86 |
Identifying Gainers Forgetting Losers | 87 |
Imperfect Models and False Analogs | 90 |
Lessons to Learn | 92 |
5 Land Degradation at the Local Scale | 93 |
Common Property Resources | 94 |
Characteristics of CPRs | 96 |
Management of LargeScale CPRs | 98 |
Water Resource Degradation | 99 |
Wild Animals | 103 |
Management of SmallScale CPRs | 104 |
Acid Rain and Forest Preservation | 106 |
Mismanaging the Range | 108 |
Tropical Deforestation and Land Degradation | 115 |
Land Degradation in the Amazon Basin | 116 |
Land Degradation in Southeastern Yucatan | 120 |
Conclusions | 121 |
Irrigation in Egypt | 122 |
Irrigation in the Great Plains | 131 |
Dams and Urban Water Supply | 136 |
Rainfed Agriculture | 142 |
Energy Production and Other Raw Materials | 176 |
Minings Direct Impacts on the Land Resource | 177 |
Nuclear Energy Production | 181 |
Wood Consumption and the Environment | 183 |
Cotton Productions Environmental Impact | 185 |
Transportation and Land Degradation | 189 |
Highways | 190 |
Harbors and Coasts | 192 |
The Global Water Crisis | 195 |
Inter and Intrabasin Water Transfers | 196 |
Invasions by Plants and Animals | 199 |
Animal Invasions | 202 |
Conclusions | 204 |
Summary | 205 |
7 Creative Destruction | 207 |
LowIntensity Systems | 208 |
Hunting and Gathering | 209 |
Shifting Cultivation | 213 |
Pastoral Nomadism | 219 |
ModerateIntensity Systems | 224 |
Terracing and Creative Destruction | 227 |
Creative Destruction in the Chinese PondDike System | 228 |
Drainage and Creative Destruction in the American Midwest | 234 |
HighIntensity Systems | 239 |
The Broads and Accidental Creative Destruction | 240 |
Drainage Flood Protection and Creative Destruction | 241 |
Creative Destruction in the Imperial Valley | 248 |
Summary | 254 |
Retrospective | 257 |
Nature Society and Technology | 260 |
Commandments for the Minimization of Land Degradation and for Sustainable Development | 265 |
Summary | 271 |
| 273 | |
| 297 | |
About the Authors | |
Other editions - View all
Land Degradation: Creation and Destruction Douglas L. Johnson,Laurence A. Lewis No preview available - 2006 |
Common terms and phrases
agroecology altered animals area's basin biomass changes climatic coastal common property construction costs created creative destruction critical zones crops cultivation decline decrease degra delta deposition desertification destructive creation drainage ecological economic ecosystems environment environmental example exist exploitation factors farmers farming fertility fields Figure fish flood floodplain flow forest grass grazing groundcover groundwater growth habitat herders herds humid impacts Imperial Valley increased Lake Nasser land degradation landscape limited livestock long-term major materials Mesopotamia minimal mining moisture Nabataean natural needs Negev Nile nomadic nutrient occur pasture percent period plant polders pollution pond population potential precipitation problems production protect rainfall rangeland region result river runoff sacrifice zones salinization Salton Sea season sediments shifting cultivation slopes soil erosion soil loss species strategies surface sustainable terrace tion traditional trees urban areas variability vegetation wastes wetlands Zuider Zee
Popular passages
Page 274 - Agricultural and environmental changes in the upper Euphrates catchment of Turkey and Syria and their political and economic implications.
Page 284 - The Black Swamp: A Study in Historical Geography," Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. XLV, 1955, pp. 1-35. Maintaining Drainage Systems, farmers' Bulletin 2047, US Department of Agriculture, Washington, DC, 1952.