MORAVIAN GEOGRAPHICAL REPORTS - Institute of Geonics ...

MoraVian geographical reports 4/2010, Vol. 18
Soil degradation increases due to accelerated soil
erosion and because of the lack of land users willingness
to apply soil conservation measures during the last ten
years, associated with a weak legislation and lack of
economic motivation. Further, land users are aware of
degradation problems in the case study area to some
extent but there is a lack of information and educational
programmes targeted on the environmental problems
and on the consequences of soil degradation processes.
The negative trends in soil degradation due to water
erosion continue in spite of material impacts on the
production capacity of soils. Reason is that current
and recent effects of erosion on productivity have
been masked by improved and increased fertilization,
improved cultivars, selective pesticides, technology
and management. However, it is evident that this
compensatory process cannot be maintained indefinitely.
5. Conclusions
As mentioned above, the best situation is on the farms
where soil degradation problems have been already
improved (mostly due to a high activity of Morava
River Board, State Enterprise) during the last ten
years and especially in the upper part of the case study
area (a part of the area is designated as drinking water
protected zone – Vír Reservoir Dam).
The improvement has been achieved mainly because
farmers have adopted a system of agro-technical and
References:
CAMMERAAT, L. H., IMESON, A. C. (1998): Deriving indicators of soil degradation from soil aggregation studies in SE Spain
and S France. Geomorphology, Vol. 23, No. 2 – 4, p. 307 – 321.
GREENLAND, D. J., SZABOLCS, I. (1994): Soil Resilience and Sustainable Land Use. CAB International: Wallingford,
p. 267 – 394.
8
Soil degradation
problem
Trend
farm 1 farm 2 farm 3 farm 4 farm 5 farm 6 farm 7 farm 8
Soil erosion (water) 2 3 4 1 3 2 3 3
Soil erosion (wind) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Loss of organic matter 1 1 1 1 2 3 3 3
Carbon balance 1 1 1 1 2 3 3 3
Diffuse contamination 1 1 0 1 1 1 3 3
Compaction 3 1 0 0 0 0 3 3
Acidification 2 1 0 2 2 1 2 2
Retention capacity 3 1 1 1 1 1 3 4
Off-site damages 2 1 1 1 2 1 4 4
Tab. 2: Trends in soil degradation on various farms over the last ten years
Note: The numbers indicate the trend of soil degradation problems of farms, with the classification ranging
from 5 (great change) to 1 (small change). All ratings are positive indicating that soil degradation is perceived to
have become more severe. The rating was made through interviewing different farms (Questionnaire)
organizational measures such as conversion of arable
land to grassland and growing of intercrops and
undersown crops and suitable agricultural techniques
causing less soil degradation
Nevertheless, when introducing a soil erosion control
in a certain watershed, agro-technical soil management
and organizational practices themselves are usually
not enough to curb the surface runoff substantially.
This is why it is necessary to apply a whole complex
system of soil conservation measures including
technical measures (Janeček et al., 2007).
Biotechnical and technical soil conservation measures
cannot be applied without respecting property rights.
Therefore, it was found suitable to develop a system
of soil and water conservation in the process of land
consolidation in the Czech Republic.
Recently, the process of complex land consolidation in
the Czech Republic has provided a unique opportunity
for improving the quality of the environment and
sustainability of crop production through better soil
and water conservation.
Acknowledgement
This study was supported by the framework of So-
Co project and research projects No. QH 72203
and 0002704902 of the Ministry of Agriculture of
the Czech Republic.