Assessing and Monitoring Sustainable Land Management for Land Degradation Neutrality in Wadi El Farigh

Abstract

This study aimed to understand the new management challenges related to the impact of climate change on biodiversity, deterioration of agricultural productivity, food security, and increasing rates of desertification. This constitutes an important indicator for studying Land Degradation Neutrality (SDGs Target 15.3), which is considered a significant target in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals 2030. The present study is concerned with assessing and monitoring land management and land degradation in Wadi El Farigh from 2000 to 2019. Soil quality is a major part of the chain that leads to understanding sustainable land management of natural resources (land, groundwater, and natural vegetation). A geopedological approach produced the studied area’s physiographic and soil map. The study of changes in land degradation level in Wadi El Farigh over 20 years with a period of every five years shows a very high improvement in the study area from the year 2000 up to 2014. From 2015 to 2019, this class was reduced due to the effects of land degradation reflected by the use of saline water for irrigating crops. Using remote sensing and geostatistical analyses within the GIS environment illustrated that the soils were classified as Entisols, representing 79.45 of the total studied area, and Aridisols representing 20.55% of the total studied area