Issue Information

Land Degradation & Development is an international journal which seeks to promote rational study of the recognition, monitoring, control and rehabilitation of degradation in terrestrial environments.The journal focuses on what land degradation is; what causes land degradation; the impacts of land degradation; the scale of land degradation; the history, current status or future trends of land degradation; avoidance, mitigation and control of land degradation; remedial actions to rehabilitate or restore degraded land; and sustainable land management.Land degradation may be defined as the loss of utility or potential utility through the reduction of or damage to physical, social, cultural or economic features and/or reduction of ecosystem diversity.There may be a single cause or a complex mix of causes, some may be biogeophysical ('natural'), some socioeconomic ('human'), and it is quite possible that cause(s) will be indirect, perhaps cumulative and difficult to identify.A major challenge is to learn how interactions between development and environment can be better managed to increase prospects for ecologically and socially sustainable improvements to human well-being.Development means attempts to improve human well-being or environmental quality in rich and poor nations on a sustained basis (sustainable development).Papers are invited on scientific, social, economic, political and historical aspects of terrestrial environmental degradation.Also welcome are analyses presenting forecasts of trends, case studies and discussion on management, planning and policy-making relating to the promotion of ecological sustainability and the coun-teraction of land degradation.In addition to original research papers, regional and thematic reviews, both invited and submitted, will be included, as will short communications, book reviews and applications of remote sensing and computer techniques.The members of the Editorial Board are drawn from a comprehensive range of disciplines and nation-alities.Together with a strict refereeing procedure, this will ensure Land Degradation & Development maintains a high standard and presents material from a wide range of disciplines, from interdisciplinary study and with an international coverage.The subject matter will include the following topics.ENVIRONMENTS Degradation of deserts, savannas and rangelands; forests and woodlands; tundra; mountain environments; wetlands and floodlands; farm-land and irrigated land; sand-dunes; coastal zones and islands; and urban and peri-urban environments in polar, temperate, subtropical and tropical regions.PROCESSES 'Desertification' and rangeland degradation; soil degradation (compaction, loss of fertility, reduced organic matter, pollution, waterlogging, acid ification, salinization, alkalinization, 'laterite' and hard-pan formation); erosion; degradation of vegetation cover and 'deforestation'; impoverishment of wildlife habitats and loss of species.CAUSES Climatic change; sea-level variation; drought; storms; earth processes (geomorphological, volcanicity, natural leaching of soils); bushfires; and degra dation as a consequence of industry, urban growth, agrochemicals, agricultural modernization, energy production consumption, mining, warfare, refugees or migrants, breakdown of traditional landuse strategies, altered communications, legislative changes, demographic changes, administrative causes, institutional causes and social or economic causes.PERCEPTIONS Perception/recognition of degradation and attitudes toward degradation; ethics and land degradation; indicators; monitoring and surveillance; assessment of significance; and establishing past, present and future trends.IMPACTS Physical, biological, social, cultural and economic impacts (direct, indirect and cumulative); long-term and short-term impacts; assessment of signif icance; and aesthetic impact of degradation.