Soil Sealing: The Permanent Loss of Soil and Its Impacts on Land Use
Açýklama:
The increasing awareness in the world for the environment and natural resource conditions against inappropriate exploitation of land is still rampant. Yassoglou and Kosmas (2000) state that the sequential land use changes leading to soil degradation in the Mediterranean context (the case of the islands) are induced by the destruction of the indigenous plant species, land abandonment due to economical hardships, and overgrazing resulting in irreversible physical desertification. Moreover, the cultivation of rain-fed cereals throughout the Mediterranean Basin especially in the West Asian and North African regions is intensifying the delivery to the ultimate end – desertification (Yassoglou, 1998; Kosmas et al. 1999; Kapur and Akça, 2001). The prevention of the ultimate end can only be attained by the development of sustainable land management (SLM) plans, which initially requires reliable local data, obtained on country basis. Unfortunately, the absence of reliable databases on resource use, management and conditions in most countries is responsible for the difficulty in establishing an SLM. Turkey is one of the few countries having acceptable data revealing the drastic changes on land caused by the population pressure. The national inventory prepared by the General Directorate of Rural Affairs, in 1978 which has been updated in 1996 puts forward the misuse of natural resources particularly soils of the country. The increasing proportions of resource consumption via infra and superstructure occupation is much higher on better quality lands resulting to indirect hazards on the remaining prime soils, with higher inputs of agricultural chemicals. The occupation of marginal lands, to be devoted to biodiversity and forestry, to meet the increasing food demand is also threatening the vulnerable ecosystem, particularly the coastal regions of the Mediterranean Basin.
