About this Research Topic

Background

In the Anthropocene, land degradation (e.g., soil erosion, moisture loss, nutrient loss, soil organic carbon decline, and biodiversity loss) is a great threat to human well-being. This is particularly true in developing countries where land degradation can be a major cause of poverty and hunger. Hence, the main objective of United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 15 is to halt and reverse land degradation and biodiversity loss.

United Nations defines sustainable land management (SLM) as “the use of land resources, including soils, water, animals and plants, for the production of goods to meet changing human needs, while simultaneously ensuring the long-term productive potential of these resources and the maintenance of their environmental functions”. In the context of global environmental change, implementing SLM is essential to:
- minimize land degradation;
- rehabilitate degraded land by improving soil physical quality, controlling soil erosion, increasing soil water storage and improving soil C sequestration capacity and soil fertility;
- ensure the sustainable use of land resources (e.g., soils, water and biodiversity);
- and maximize societal resilience.

In this Research Topic, we call for contributions addressing the role of pedometrics to the quantification of soil quality for land management and sustainable use of land resources, as well as contributions addressing sustainable land management (SLM) practices in general. We especially welcome interdisciplinary research across soil science, agronomy, hydrology, ecology, sustainability science and pedometrics. The Research Topic welcomes reviews, original research, opinions, and meta-analysis articles with themes such as, but not limited to:
(1) SLM design and practices across farmland, watershed, and regional scales,
(2) modeling practices to address SLM,
(3) social-ecological outcomes of SLM practices across scales,
(4) resilience of SLM practices under extreme climate,
(5) and contribution of SLM to SDGs especially SDG15.

Keywords: SLM, Land Degradation, Land Development, Sustainability

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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