Integrated Indicators for the Estimation of Vulnerability to Land Degradation

Abstract

The setting up of sustainable development strategies, able to balance the opposite demands of economic growth and environmental protection, is one of the fundamental challenges for the international community. Our developing world is experiencing growing pressures on its land, water, and food production systems and the role of the human society in determin‐ ing change within the Earth environment is becoming ever more central [1]. In this context, preserving the land productivity is a prior goal, especially in those areas, such as drylands, which are particularly fragile from an ecological point of view.