Agriculture Science University (Universitatea de Științe Agricole și

Medicină Veterinară a Banatului)

LAND DEGRADATION: FROM

DRYNESS TO
DESERTIFICATION

A. ARMAŞ1, E.T. MAN1, R.F. BEILICCI1, V.

MAZĂRE2, O.S. CUZIC1 , A. ŞMULEAC2
 Abstract.
What is land degradation?
• Land degradation is caused by multiple forces,
including extreme weather conditions, particularly
drought. It is also caused by human activities that
pollute or degrade the quality of soils and land utility.
It negatively affects food production, livelihoods, and
the production and provision of other ecosystem
goods and services. Desertification is a form of land
degradation by which fertile land becomes desert
 Keywords: dryness, drought, desertification,
degradation, land

• What are the threats to land integrity?

• Land degradation has accelerated during the 20th and
21st centuries due to increasing and combined
pressures of agricultural and livestock production
(over-cultivation, overgrazing, forest conversion),
urbanization, deforestation and extreme weather
events such as droughts and coastal surges, which
salinate land.
 MATERIAL AND METHODS

• What effect does desertification on human health?

• The potential impacts of desertification on health include:
• higher threats of malnutrition from reduced food and
water supplies;
• more water- and food-borne diseases that result from poor
hygiene and a lack of clean water;
• respiratory diseases caused by atmospheric dust from wind
erosion and other air pollutants;
• the spread of infectious diseases as populations migrate.
•  
 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

ISP value Period characterisation

>2,0 Extremely wet
1,5 - 1,99 Very wet
1,0 – 1,49 Moderately wet
-0,99 – 0,99 Almost normal
-1,0 – -1,49 Moderately dry
-1,5 - -1,99 Very dry
<-2,0 Extremely dry
 Intervals evaluation with the aid of Effective Drought
Index
IES value Period characterisation

-0,99 – 0,99 Normal period

1,0 - -1,49 Moderated drought
-1,5 - -1,99 Very drought
< -2,0 Extremely drought
 CONCLUSIONS

• As to conclude with it can be said that in order to diminish the

vulnerability degree of an economy to the socio-economic effects of
drought phenomena, certain strategies for a controlled deduction of
specific water demands can be implemented or identifying some
possibilities of increasing the water availabilities of the respective society,
through increasing the storage capabilities (artificial enriching the
aquifers), and identifying new sources of water that can be transported to
the respective area. Taking into consideration the exacerbated economic
growth of the human society in the last two centuries, with the
exponential increase of water demands, the only solution for maintaining
an optimal and acceptable vulnerability degree to drought is for the social
and economical development to be in balance with the environment`s
potential of the given region, i.e. durable socio-economic development.
•