Soil sealing for urban and infrastructure development constitutes the most intense form of land degradation and affects all ecosystem services. Researchers and policy makers have become aware of this fact and call for limiting development and compensating for new soil sealing with unsealing measures…

Rural women - a quarter of the world’s population - work as farmers, wage earners and entrepreneurs. They represent an important share of the agriculture workforce and their contribution to the rural economy is widely underestimated. They are concentrated in the informal economy in low-skilled, low…

To celebrate 30 years of activities the ESSC is organizing the SoWaSe-ESSC International Conference on ‘Soil and Water Security: Challenges for the next 30 years!’

Soil erosion severely threatens the soil resource and the sustainability of agriculture. After decades of research, this problem still persists, despite the fact that adequate technical solutions now exist for most situations. This begs the question as to why soil conservation is not more rapidly…

The cultivation of bioenergy plants at fertile, arable lands increasingly results in new land use conflicts with food production and cannot be considered as sustainable, therefore. Marginal lands have been frequently considered as potential alternative for producing bioenergy from biomass. However…

Land use has important consequences for the environment, public health, economic productivity, inequality and social segregation. Land use policies are often complex and require co-ordination across all levels of government as well as across policy sectors. Not surprisingly, land use decisions can…

This paper conceptually integrates resilience and nexus approaches, developing a combined framework and indicating how it could effectively be operationalized in cases from mountain and mangrove social‐ecological systems. In doing so, it advances understanding of complex social‐ecological systems…

Today, the New Climate Economy launches its 2018 report, Unlocking the Inclusive Growth Story of the 21st Century: Accelerating Climate Action in Urgent Times. It demonstrates the benefits of a new low-carbon growth model and outlines how we can urgently accelerate efforts to achieve it. Bold action…

Agroforestry is an integrated land use management that combines a woody component with a lower story agricultural production recognized as one of the most important tools to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

GLOBALANDS project aims to identify promising existing land use policies and to develop possible governance tools towards a more resource efficient and sustainable global land use.

There are 1.6 billion people living in the dry areas of the world and land degradation affects the life and livelihood of each and every one of them. Land degradation significantly increases vulnerability in drylands by perpetuating food insecurity, poverty, and exploitation of natural resources.

This study presents a meta-analysis of case studies that investigate the adoption of soil and water conservation measures, as an important approach to resource conservation.

This article describes key research questions about the economics of landscape change and reviews the state of research knowledge.

Grey literature is defined as ‘that which is produced on all levels of government, academics, business and industry in print and electronic formats, but which is not controlled by commercial publishers.’

Food Tank has compiled a list of indigenous fruits, vegetables, and grains from many regions that are nutritious, delicious, and contribute to sustainable livelihoods in rural communities across the globe.

The global map by JRC released in 2008 measures urbanisation from the new perspective of Travel Time to 8,500 Major Cities. The map fills an important gap in our understanding of economic, physical and even social connectivity.

Sand dams transform lives. They provide a sustainable, clean, local source of water for rural communities, saving time and creating opportunities for farming, education and poverty alleviation. By breaking the cycle of dependence Sand Dams create choice; freeing people to realise their own potential…

Soils are the basis of human existence by being the substrate for food and crop production. Soils hovever, are increasingly threatened by degradation, pollution, erosion, loss of organic matter, salinization and other processes that render them unuseable for crop and food production. Soil…

Soils have been the neglected environmental media for a long time. However, several food crises at the beginning of this century have brought a change in perspective of late. Since then, the indispensable value of soils for humans and for the conservation of the environment as a whole has been…

European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2017(Vienna, Austria, 23-28 April) The scientific programme of the General Assembly 2017 includes special scientific and interdisciplinary events as well as oral, PICO, and poster sessions on disciplinary and interdisciplinary topics covering the full…

Wageningen Soil Conference 2017: Soil Science in a Changing World; August 27 - 31, 2017 Humankind is currently facing unprecedented challenges regarding food security, water resources, climate change and biodiversity. The participants of the 2015 edition of the Wageningen Soil Conference agreed that…

The outlook for developing East Asia is expected to remain broadly positive in the next three years, with growth driven by robust domestic demand and a gradual recovery in the global economy and commodity prices. China’s economy will grow 6.5 percent in 2017 and 6.3 percent in 2018, compared with 6…

SOIL is an international scientific journal dedicated to the publication and discussion of high-quality research in the field of soil system sciences. SOIL is at the interface between the atmosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere. SOIL publishes scientific research that contributes to…

The workshop took place in Ispra, Italy (20-22 March 2017) and was organized by the Joint Research Centre (JRC). It hosted more than 110 participants and the 83 presentations are available for download. This workshop discussed mainly issues how the local/regional model­ing results can be upscaled…

This book comprehensively describes the major ecosystem services in dryland environments that are provided by typical land use, including forestland, grassland and farmland, using the Loess Plateau, Northwest China as an example. It offers extensive information on land policy, implementation and…