Advanced GIS and RS Applications for Soil and Land Degradation Assessment and Mapping

Land refers to the planet’s surface not covered by seas, lakes or rivers, but by different types of vegetation (e.g. natural or managed grassland, cropland, and wetlands) and artificial surfaces (e.g. roads and buildings). Soil is one of the essential components of land. The upper, weathered, solid mantle of the Earth, called the pedosphere, results from the complex influence of soil forming factors (parent material, topography, climate, living organisms, human activities, and time) and soil forming processes at the zone of interactions of the lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere, as well as reflecting variations and changes of these natural components. Soils are active and passive factors in most natural cycles and processes, consequently soil is a multifunctional natural resource. Soil functions and services may be endangered by the effects of natural factors, processes accelerated by human activities (i.e. erosion, deflation) and by human-induced damages (pollution, acidification, etc.). [...]