Journal of Arid Environments 176 (2020) 104097

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Journal of Arid Environments

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jaridenv

Soil deterioration in the southern Chihuahuan Desert caused by agricultural T

practices and meteorological events
María de Jesús Guevara Macíasa, Noel Carbajala, José Tuxpan Vargasb,∗
a
Instituto Potosino de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica A.C. Camino a la Presa San José 2055, CP, 78216, San Luis Potosí S.L.P, Mexico
b
Cátedras-CONACyT-Instituto Potosino de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica A.C. Camino a la Presa San José 2055, CP, 78216, San Luis Potosí S.L.P, Mexico

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: In arid and semi-arid regions, unregulated land use changes as a result of poor planning, and the expansion of
Remote sensing agricultural and livestock activities increase the risk of desertification and other potentially severe environ-
Land use impact mental impacts. Several consequences of improper land management practices are soil deterioration and erosion,
Desertification which may be intensified by meteorological events. This paper presents a historical evaluation of the temporal
Arid zones
and spatial evolution of soil deterioration in the southern Chihuahuan Desert in Mexico. A multi-temporal
analysis of the study area during the 1995–2016 period was carried out using satellite data (Landsat series). Two
seasons were analyzed to determine the influence of external events such as rainfall and wind: dry and rainy. The
identification of soil conditions was based on the Brightness Index (BI) considering the complete satellite data
set. The soil conditions were classified into five categories according to their reflectance values: highly dete-
riorated, deteriorated, in the process of being deteriorated, in good condition and other (clouds, water, non-soil).
The change detection maps clearly show a growing trend wherein areas of deteriorated and eroded soil increase
over time. Agriculture and strong winds are the two main factors involved in the soil deterioration process of the
study region.

1. Introduction overexploitation and the exhaustion and contamination of aquifers.

Land use change is generally a consequence of the exponential
growth of the world's population and the expansion of urban areas. As
the population increases, more land is needed to produce food and raw
materials. Primary economic activities, including intensive agriculture
and livestock activities, have often expanded into new areas without
proper planning, modifying large tracts of land and leading to defor-
estation. Crop expansion has affected different ecosystems, mainly
grassland and forest regions. In tropical regions, croplands have ex-
panded mostly at the expense of forest cover over the past 40–50 years
(Gibbs et al., 2010).
Several environmental problems resulting from massive land use
changes, such as desertification, have been well documented. During
the Dust Bowl era in the United States, the cultivation of large crop
areas combined with drought created severe dust storms. Inadequate
agricultural practices such as the implementation of monocultures and
the removal of vegetation cover were the principal causes of this phe-
nomenon (Schoijet, 2005; Ravi et al., 2009). Currently, China is another
example of a country experiencing accelerated environmental de-
gradation caused by deforestation, overgrazing, agricultural
Since 1978, China has initiated economic reform and an open-door
policy, leading to rapid land use and land cover changes across most of
its territory (Weng, 2002). As a result, the rate of desertification in
China has increased. For example, the areas surrounding the Gobi De-
sert have undergone desertification because of overgrazing (Schoijet,
2005; Ravi, 2009). The impacts of agriculture in north-eastern China
have caused the erosion of black soil to a depth of 0.4 m, resulting in a
nearly 10% reduction in soybean production (Gao et al., 2014). In
Mongolia, wind erosion and heavy grazing are the leading causes of
sandy desertification and have triggered further impacts on the vege-
tation cover in addition to hastening erosion processes, leading to the
loss of soil structure and soil deterioration (Zhao et al., 2005). In Ar-
gentina, about 80% of the territory is dedicated to agricultural or for-
estry activities; however, these activities have similarly increased rates
of soil erosion and degradation. Hence, the expansion of the agri-
cultural frontier and unplanned deforestation appear to have severely
degraded natural resources (Maris, 2000).
In Mexico, more than 80% of agricultural land shows some degree
of degradation as a result of monocultures, deforestation or livestock
activities. Estimates obtained indicate that around 97% of the land

∗
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: mdejesus.guevara@ipicyt.edu.mx (M. de Jesús Guevara Macías), noelc@ipicyt.edu.mx (N. Carbajal), jose.tuxpan@ipicyt.edu.mx (J.T. Vargas).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaridenv.2019.104097
Received 19 December 2018; Received in revised form 10 August 2019; Accepted 30 December 2019
Available online 11 January 2020
0140-1963/ © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
M. de Jesús Guevara Macías, et al. Journal of Arid Environments 176 (2020) 104097

Fig. 1. Location of the study area. In a) the Chihuahua desert in Mexico is shown in gray tones (Morrone et al., 2017), in b) the state of Zacatecas is delimited with a
red line, and the location of the study area is shown, and in c) a true color composite image acquired by the Landsat 8 platform is presented. The red circles indicate
the location of meteorological stations within the study area: 1) Agronomía, 2) COBAEZ, 3) Arcinas 4) Mesa de Fuentes. The urban areas of Fresnillo and Zacatecas
are identified by the acronyms UA1 and UA2 respectively. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version
of this article.)

dedicated to agriculture in Mexico are very vulnerable to desertification
processes. Studies conducted by Oropeza (2004) determined the Mex-
ican territory as 48% highly susceptible to desertification and 49% as
moderately susceptible. The change of land use for agricultural and
livestock applications was transformed from areas with forest cover
(82%) and grasslands (18%) according to Meneses (2008). The effect of
land degradation due to land use change mainly affects arid and semi-
arid zones. Intensive deforestation, overgrazing, corrupt agricultural
practices and soil management are elements that increase the risk of
desertification. Two studies cases evidenced the process of desertifica-
tion from the Chihuahua Desert. In 2006 (E. Huber-Sannwald et al.)
realized an investigation in a rural area focusing on the interrelation-
ship human-environment system that causes desertification — in the
southern part from Chihuahua Desert in a temporal evolution study
using indicators from desertification: Normalized Difference Vegetation
Index (NDVI), Normalized Water Index (NDWI), Iron Oxides Index (OI)
and Surface temperature (ST) (Noyola-Medrano et al., 2017). The re-
sults show that the most affected area in San Luis Potosí Plateau is the
west portion.
The southern part of the Chihuahua Desert in Zacatecas state is a
semi-arid region with extensive grassland and scrub cover as well as a
temperate forest in the high mountain areas, is not exempt from the
environmental problems associated with land use changes in favor of
agricultural and livestock activities. In this region, extensive areas of
scrub cover have mostly been converted into new croplands and pas-
turelands. Additionally, the population growth of cities such as
Zacatecas and Fresnillo and the corresponding expansion of the urban
area have considerably contributed towards land deterioration. Recent
research confirmed that land use changes in this region had intensified
soil degradation (Céspedes and Moreno, 2010; Velázquez Valle et al.,
2014). In general, the mechanism for soil loss is a combination of the
effects of wind and water erosion. In this area, the main factors are
changes in land use, erosion caused by strong winds and intense dust
storms associated with the passage of cold fronts. Bare soil areas con-
tribute to this problem, as they act as sources of dust. Each year, the
region experiences more than 50 cold fronts during the winter season
according to the records of the meteorological stations near the study
area. The National Institute of Forestry, Agriculture and Livestock Re-
search (INIFAP, for its initials in Spanish) estimated a soil loss of about
3500–4000 tonnes km-2 in 2005. In the study region, average rainfall
has been decreasing, leading to longer dry seasons, is the most sig-
nificant impact of droughts during the winter due to increased wind
erosion causing soil deterioration. For instance, soil loss during 12 h
over a source area of 4320 km2 was previously determined to be ap-
proximately 9162 tonnes (Pineda et al., 2011).
Concern over the effects of land use changes on the planet has led to
the development of different methodologies for evidencing the impact
of land use changes on natural resources. Remote sensing combined
with image processing enables areas with modified land uses or covers
or with a high level of soil deterioration to be identified. Based on sa-
tellite images, it is possible to quantify and classify the state of a ve-
getation cover (e.g., very deteriorated, deteriorated, in the process of
being deteriorated or in good condition). Hence, a series of satellite
images can be evaluated to determine the state of a particular

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M. de Jesús Guevara Macías, et al. Journal of Arid Environments 176 (2020) 104097

Fig. 2. Land use in the study area. Source: Vector data on land use and vegetation (scale 1:250000, series V from INEGI (2015).

Fig. 3. Schematic representation of the desertification process.

Fig. 4. Wind speeds recorded in the study area during the 2015 winter season.

phenomenon over time (Singh et al., 1989; Jovanovic, 2011). More-
over, different techniques can be applied in remote sensing, including
the calculation of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI),
Bare Soil Index (BSI) and Normalized Difference Soil Index (NDSI),
which can also be used, for example, to quantify the rate of
deforestation, increase in cropland area and other changes in vegetation
cover over time. This paper focuses on the evolution of soil deteriora-
tion in the southern Chihuahua Desert during the period 1995–2016.
The study was conducted using Landsat satellite data and the im-
plementation and evaluation of various indexes and classification

3
M. de Jesús Guevara Macías, et al.
Fig. 5. Methodological process for determining the level of soil deterioration.
algorithms and being the brightness index (BI) the one that presented
better performance and the one used in this work. Changes in soil
quality are identified as a result of agricultural and livestock practices,
highlighting areas that have been highly deteriorated.
1.1. Study area
The study area is located in the central-northern part of Mexico in a
semi-arid region of the Chihuahua Desert (Fig. 1). It is situated in the
State of Zacatecas on the central plateau of Mexico between the Wes-
tern Sierra Madre and the Eastern Sierra Madre, encompassing an area
of 7336 km2 (Fig. 1, the area enclosed by the black line). At the local
level, the study area is located within two physiographic sub-provinces:
the Zacatecas mountain ranges, valleys and plains, and the Potosina-
Zacatecana mountains ranges. The dominant vegetation is grassland
and scrubland. Near urban areas, the primary land use is agriculture.
The study region includes different types of coniferous forests in the
high mountain ranges in addition to mesquite, desert scrub and grass-
land in the lower regions (Comisión Técnico Consultiva para la
Determinación Regional de los Coeficientes de Agostadero 1980). The
dominant climate is dry with warm summer, classified as BS1kw. The
annual average temperature is 15–18 °C, and the average annual rain-
fall is 355 mm.
The earliest outcrops are formed by low-grade metamorphic rocks
(slates, phyllites, and schists) from the Triassic period that rise towards
the North and West. Rocks containing clastic marine deposits (sand-
stones and shales) from the Cretaceous period and volcanic rocks and
small intrusive bodies from the Tertiary period are also present.
However, Quaternary alluvial deposits predominate (INEGI, 1981). The
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Journal of Arid Environments 176 (2020) 104097
dominant soil classes in the study area are xerosoles, yermosols,
feozem, Eurasian, and kastanozem, with mostly a medium texture
(World Reference Base, 2006) and reddish color. These soils are mainly
used as rainfed croplands. The following soil texture classifications are
present: loamy clay-sandy, clayey, clayey and sandy (INEGI, 2007).
Fig. 2 shows the main land uses in the study area. Seasonal (rainfed)
agriculture is dominant across the entire region, but significant irriga-
tion zones agriculture are present. Different types of scrub can be ob-
served, including the microphyllous scrub that covers the entire north-
eastern to the central portion of the study area. Several areas of rosette
desert scrub are present in the southern part. Also, different associa-
tions of secondary vegetation can be observed across a large portion of
the study area. Finally, a small area of secondary Quercus forest is
found in the south-western region of the study area.
Desertification in the study area is highly related to soil deteriora-
tion. Fig. 3 shows the desertification process in a schematic way, con-
sidering as a trigger the change of land use towards seasonal farming.
First, a change in land use occurs wherein grasslands or forests are
converted into croplands. Crops are mostly irrigated from May to Oc-
tober. However, during the winter dry season, the soils are devoid of
vegetation, as shown in Fig. 3b. A series of cold fronts then propagates
through the study area, frequently causing strong winds that interact
with bare soils and increase the erosion process. The combined action of
these natural and anthropogenic phenomena result in increased erosion
and soil deterioration. In Fig. 3c, an image of a deteriorated soil is
shown; the main character is the sandiness of the soil. It was also ob-
served that irrigated agriculture does not represent a significant com-
ponent for the erosion process in the study area. Therefore, the analysis
focused on the predominant type of agriculture, i.e., rainfed agriculture.
It should be noted that in the winter season the maximum wind speeds
are obtained (see Fig. 4), promoting the transport and dragging of
material and in turn contributing to soil degradation.
2. Methodology
Satellite data set were evaluated and acquired from U.S Geological
Services on the following dates: Landsat 5 TM for 1995, 1996 and
Landsat 8 OLI-TIRS for 2015 and 2016. Images were obtained for both
the summer and winter seasons. In particular, the images corresponded
with October 1995, January and October 1996, October 2015 and
February 2016. Radiometric and atmospheric corrections were per-
formed for each image according to the methods of Chander et al.
(2009) and de Keukelaere (2018). For soil characterization and multi-
temporal analysis, several procedures were used, including the im-
plementation of indices (NDVI, BSI, NDSI, BI), as well as supervised
classification algorithms based on minimum distance (MD) and Max-
imum Likelihood (ML). Of the tested methods, the most consistent re-
sult in the multi-temporal analysis was the brightness index (BI), so it
was chosen to determine the degree of soil deterioration. The highest
values correspond to the land surface with the highest reflectivity, i.e.,
bare soil or soil with a low density of vegetation cover. This index is
based on the reflectance of two visible bands and the near infrared band
(NIR), which determine the surface brightness (Escadafal and Bacha,
1996) as follows:
BI= (G2+R2+NIR2)1/2 (1)
where G = the green band, R = the red band and NIR = the near-
infrared band. The resulting values were considered as proxies of the
level of soil deterioration and were classified into five categories: highly
deteriorated, deteriorated, in the process of being deteriorated, in good
condition and other. It should be clarified that the spectral thresholds of
each category were obtained in-site through observations using the
percentage of land cover as a criterion. The BI index and classification
were calculated and compared for all periods for which satellite data
were available. The methodological process is summarised in Fig. 5.
M. de Jesús Guevara Macías, et al.
Fig. 6. Classification of deteriorated areas based on the Brightness Index (BI) during the rainy season of a) October 1995, b) October 1996 and c) October 2015.
3. Results
The analysis of different patterns in the satellite imagery and BI over
time allowed the evolution of soils without vegetation cover to be de-
termined. An increase in rainfed croplands was observed. This process
is relevant because these croplands are then exposed to the action of
winds associated with the passage of cold fronts during winter, which
can initiate or increase soil deterioration. In Fig. 6, the BI index clas-
sified into five categories of soil quality is displayed for October in
1995, 1996 and 2015, which can be considered as the end of the rainy
season. During this month, the areas classified as highly deteriorated (in
black) are practically the same in both 1995 and 2015. However, the
areas that were deteriorated or in the process of being deteriorated
significantly varied depending on the yearly rainfall intensity. By Oc-
tober 22, 2015, it appears that land cover in good condition increased,
but this is also due to the amount of rain that fell on days close to the
day the image was taken. The rainfall level influences soil humidity and
grass growth and thereby impacts the values of the BI index. However,
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Journal of Arid Environments 176 (2020) 104097
it is essential to note that highly deteriorated soils did not show sig-
nificant differences between the analyzed dates.
Records from the weather stations located within the study area are
shown in Fig. 7 to corroborate the influence of rainfall. The black ar-
rows indicate the days when the satellite images were obtained. In
October 1995 and 1996, no rain fell in the days before the images were
taken. However, in October 2015, a relatively big rainfall event oc-
curred. Hence, an analysis of Figs. 6 and 7 reveals that the BI index is
sensitive to the presence of humidity. The BI index must then be pre-
ferably applied during the dry season. It is important to note that the
amount of rainfall in the study area is quite similar among the analyzed
years, i.e., the amount of precipitation is not very variable.
4. Discussion
Over a more extended period, noticeable changes in soil quality are
evident. In Fig. 8, the soil quality determined from satellite images
captured 20 years apart can be compared. Significant changes are
M. de Jesús Guevara Macías, et al. Journal of Arid Environments 176 (2020) 104097

Fig. 7. Rainfall for several months during a) 1995, b) 1996 and c) 2015 in the study area. The arrows indicate the dates (October 31, 1995; October 17, 1996; October
22, 2015) when satellite images were captured.

Fig. 8. Satellite images of soil deterioration in a) February 1996 and b) February 2016.

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M. de Jesús Guevara Macías, et al. Journal of Arid Environments 176 (2020) 104097

Fig. 9. Rainfall in January and February 2016 in the study area. The arrow indicates the date when the satellite image (February 11, 2016) was captured.

Fig. 10. Detailed comparison of a) the zoomed-in area in b) February 1996 and c) February 2016.

observed in the levels or categories of soil deterioration. In Fig. 8a,
areas with deteriorated soils or that are in the process of being dete-
riorated in February 1996 can be observed. Comparatively, in Fig. 8b
(20 years later), a significant amount of soils in these latter categories
became highly deteriorated. These changes indicate sharp transitions in
the extent of soil deterioration. Many deteriorated soils became highly
deteriorated, and many soils in the process of being deteriorated also
became deteriorated.
Most areas corresponding with highly deteriorated and deteriorated
soils are located in the western portion of the study area where a
substantial increase in these two categories is observed over time.
Notably, in the north-western region, many highly deteriorated soils
were identified. It represents a significant change in only 20 years after
the date that the land tenure law was changed. It is also important to
mention that, in the southern part of the study area, highly deteriorated
soils were not present in 1996 but underwent a transition from dete-
riorated to a highly deteriorated by 2016. Microphyllous scrub or its
secondary vegetation covers the areas that conserve a proportion of
soils in good condition over the analyzed 20-year period.
The significant shift towards highly deteriorated soils is worrisome
and reflects the result of net erosion and the formation of desert soils. In
the images shown in Fig. 3b and c, sandy soils with dunes are found in
regions that previously had some vegetation cover. In fact, on our ex-
ploratory routes in the field, a large number of sandy soils were found,

7
M. de Jesús Guevara Macías, et al. Journal of Arid Environments 176 (2020) 104097

Fig. 11. Soil area corresponding with the categories of highly deteriorated, deteriorated and in process of being deteriorated during the winter dry season of 1996
and 2016.

Fig. 12. Soil area corresponding with the categories of high deteriorated, deteriorated and in process of being deteriorated during the rainy summer season of 1996
and 2015.

Fig. 13. Soil conditions during the winter in the study area (a). The erosion process is observed in the formation of small dunes (b).

as observed in Fig. 13b, which is characteristic of highly deteriorated
soils. Additionally, in several rainfed croplands that were highly dete-
riorated, soil was brought from the forested areas of the mountain
ranges surrounding the study area and used as fertilizer. This process
created two fundamental environmental problems: 1) to make a change
of land use towards rainfed land with the erosion mentioned above
process due to winds associated with cold fronts and 2) the devastation
of soils in wooded areas because of the transport of fertile soil to de-
teriorated areas. Notably, the deterioration process is less intense in
areas with irrigation systems, as seen in Fig. 8 (green areas).
Fig. 9 shows the rainfall recorded in January and February 2016. In
contrast to the rainy season, the rainfall recorded at most stations
during these months is low. The rainfall level in addition to the low
temperatures explains the lack of vegetation cover in rainfed croplands.
Maximum rainfall of about 6.5 mm occurred on January 27 and was
recorded at four stations. However, near the date of the satellite image,
a rainfall of only 2 mm was captured. This rainfall behavior in the
winter months, as shown in Fig. 9, is quite representative for this re-
gion. A comparison between the rainy season and the dry season reveals
a significant difference in the amount of rain received during these
seasons. In winter, levels of around 7 mm are recorded, whereas, during
summer, rainfall can reach up to 80 mm daily.
Additionally, the results revealed that areas of severe soil dete-
rioration are more concentrated in the north-western part of the study

8
M. de Jesús Guevara Macías, et al.
area. For this reason, it is necessary to examine these areas in greater
detail. Fig. 10 shows the distribution of the BI index during February
1996 and February 2016 for a zoomed-in region showing substantial
changes in the extent of soil deterioration. A large portion of the surface
area classified as in the process of being deteriorated in 1996 was
classified 20 years later as highly deteriorated, being the area of rainfed
crops as the most vulnerable and affected. Also, the amount of soil in
good condition in 1996 (Fig. 10b) is markedly reduced by 2016
(Fig. 10c). This part of the study area shows the magnitude of the en-
vironmental problem generated by the massive shift in land use towards
rainfed cultivation. In particular, in this region, the percentage of soil in
the highly deteriorated category increased from 5.8% in 1996 to 49.2%
in 2016. This change is extraordinary and, without a doubt, is detri-
mental to the environment. The percentage of soil in good condition
decreased from 34.3% in 1996 to 17.4% in 2016. These changes are
generally the result of inappropriate land management practices in the
region, and poor planning for not considering the climatic conditions
that exist during the planning of rain-fed croplands. One consequence
of poor land planning and management is the formation of desert zones.
Anthropogenic activities have changed vegetation cover and allowed
the soil to erode gradually, generating a potential risk of soil dete-
rioration for the future.
Finally, the areas that changed in terms of soil quality can also be
quantified to further highlight processes of soil deterioration over time.
Fig. 11 shows the changes during the winter dry season. Highly dete-
riorated soils were found across 6.4 km2 in 1996 yet expanded to
422 km2 by 2016. Deteriorated soils were found across 60.82 km2 in
1996 yet increased to 1718 km2 by 2016. Finally, roughly 2477.49 km2
of soil was in the process of being deteriorated in 1996–3019 km2 in
2016. Notably, the first two categories show an increasing tendency
over time, indicating that the study area is experiencing a process of soil
deterioration.
However, the calculated values for the BI index differed during the
rainy season. The presence of moisture in the soil and growing grass
influences the BI values. Therefore, its application must be done with
great care. It means that the percentage of soil area corresponding to
the categories of highly deteriorated, deteriorated, in the process of
being deteriorated and in good condition varies with the dry season.
Fig. 12 shows the areas determined to be highly deteriorated during the
rainy season: 27.7 km2 in 1996 and 24 km2 in 2015. In the areas cor-
responding with the deteriorated category the values are of a higher
order of magnitude, but the distribution is similar to that of highly
deteriorated areas. Likewise, the areas corresponding to the process of
being deteriorated show a very similar behavior during the analysis
period, which allows us to think that during the rainy season the “ap-
parent” state of stability may be due to the occurrence of small dis-
turbances in the area and a more significant presence of vegetation
cover.
Based on the present results, unless there is a change in the soil
protection policy in both valleys and forested areas, this semi-arid re-
gion of the Chihuahua Desert will likely become a desertic area in the
future as a result of the combined effect of the expansion of rainfed
croplands and meteorological conditions during the winter dry season.
In Fig. 13, deteriorating soils are described in the neighborhood of the
coordinates 22.977 N and 102.681 W. In (a), an example of soil exposed
in winter to the action of strong winds is presented. In (b), an erosion
process is observed in the formation of small dunes. Since in the winter
season there are on average about 50 cold fronts (according to the
portal of the Mexican meteorological service (SMN, 1996, https://smn.
cna.gob.mx/es/) and approximately 20% correspond to strong winds,
the erosion process is considerable. This region already experiences
severe dust storms that impact other areas of Mexico as well as the
United States.
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Journal of Arid Environments 176 (2020) 104097
5. Conclusion
The calculation of the Brightness Index (BI) using satellite data and
imagery allowed us to perform a multi-temporal analysis of changes in
the level of soil deterioration over time in an area of the southern
Chihuahuan Desert. In 1993, the pressure on soil resources was lower
than in recent years. However, the BI is susceptible to the presence of
moisture in the soil. In other words, the characteristics of the index are
enhanced during the winter due to the properties of the soil such as the
texture and its composition. Its application during the dry season likely
provides a more accurate picture of soil degradation than during the
rainy season and represents a practical way of determining areas of bare
soil exposed to the action of strong winds that cause deterioration and
erosion. Since 1993, processes of soil deterioration in the study area
have intensified. By 1996, soil deterioration showed a gradual incre-
ment. By 2016, large soil areas had been transformed; many soils that
were in the process of being deteriorated became highly deteriorated.
These transformations may be related to poor soil and land manage-
ment in the study region. The process of increasing soil deterioration in
the study region is concretely related to two factors: changes in land use
favoring agricultural activity and the occurrence of strong winds asso-
ciated with cold fronts.
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