Designing grazing susceptibility to land degradation index (GSLDI) in hilly areas

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Minea, Gabriel
Ciobotaru, Nicu
Ioana-Toroimac, Gabriela
Mititelu-Ionus, Oana
Neculau, Gianina
Gyasi-Agyei, Yeboah
Rodrigo-Comino, Jesus
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2022
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Abstract

Evaluation of grazing impacts on land degradation processes is a difficult task due to the heterogeneity and complex interacting factors involved. In this paper, we designed a new methodology based on a predictive index of grazing susceptibility to land degradation index (GSLDI) built on artificial intelligence to assess land degradation susceptibility in areas affected by small ruminants (SRs) of sheep and goats grazing. The data for model training, validation, and testing consisted of sampling points (erosion and no-erosion) taken from aerial imagery. Seventeen environmental factors (e.g., derivatives of the digital elevation model, small ruminants’ stock), and 55 subsequent attributes (e.g., classes/features) were assigned to each sampling point. The impact of SRs stock density on the land degradation process has been evaluated and estimated with two extreme SRs’ density scenarios: absence (no stock), and double density (overstocking). We applied the GSLDI methodology to the Curvature Subcarpathians, a region that experiences the highest erosion rates in Romania, and found that SRs grazing is not the major contributor to land degradation, accounting for only 4.6%. This methodology could be replicated in other steep slope grazing areas as a tool to assess and predict susceptible to land degradation, and to establish common strategies for sustainable land-use practices.

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Scientific Reports

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12

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1

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© The Author(s) 2022. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.

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Environmental management

Agriculture, land and farm management

Science & Technology

Multidisciplinary Sciences

Science & Technology - Other Topics

SMALL DARTMOOR CATCHMENT

LANDSLIDE SUSCEPTIBILITY

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Minea, G; Ciobotaru, N; Ioana-Toroimac, G; Mititelu-Ionus, O; Neculau, G; Gyasi-Agyei, Y; Rodrigo-Comino, J, Designing grazing susceptibility to land degradation index (GSLDI) in hilly areas, Scientific Reports, 2022, 12 (1), pp. 9393

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