Soil and Water Quality


Book Description

How can the United States meet demands for agricultural production while solving the broader range of environmental problems attributed to farming practices? National policymakers who try to answer this question confront difficult trade-offs. This book offers four specific strategies that can serve as the basis for a national policy to protect soil and water quality while maintaining U.S. agricultural productivity and competitiveness. Timely and comprehensive, the volume has important implications for the Clean Air Act and the 1995 farm bill. Advocating a systems approach, the committee recommends specific farm practices and new approaches to prevention of soil degradation and water pollution for environmental agencies. The volume details methods of evaluating soil management systems and offers a wealth of information on improved management of nitrogen, phosphorus, manure, pesticides, sediments, salt, and trace elements. Landscape analysis of nonpoint source pollution is also detailed. Drawing together research findings, survey results, and case examples, the volume will be of interest to federal, state, and local policymakers; state and local environmental and agricultural officials and other environmental and agricultural specialists; scientists involved in soil and water issues; researchers; and agricultural producers.




Soil Erosion in Europe


Book Description

Provides a unique and comprehensive assessment of soil erosion throughout Europe, an important aspect to control and manage if landscapes are to be sustained for the future. Written in two parts, Soil Erosion in Europe primarily focuses on current issues, area specific soil erosion rates, on and off-site impacts, government responses, soil conservation measures, and soil erosion risk maps. The first part overviews the erosion processes and the problems encountered within each European country, whilst the second section takes a cross-cutting theme approach. Based on an EU-funded project that has been running for four years with erosion scientists from 19 countries Reviews contemporary erosion processes and rates on arable and rangeland in Europe Looks at current issues, such as socio-economic drivers, controlling factors specific to the country and changes in land use




Soil erosion: the greatest challenge for sustainable soil management


Book Description

Despite almost a century of research and extension efforts, soil erosion by water, wind and tillage continues to be the greatest threat to soil health and soil ecosystem services in many regions of the world. Our understanding of the physical processes of erosion and the controls on those processes has been firmly established. Nevertheless, some elements remain controversial. It is often these controversial questions that hamper efforts to implement sound erosion control measures in many areas of the world. This book, released in the framework of the Global Symposium on Soil Erosion (15-17 May 2019) reviews the state-of-the-art information related to all topics related to soil erosion.







Soil Conservation


Book Description

This new volume is the first independent analysis of an important national data base, the National Resources Inventory. It cites potential uses of the NRI in controlling soil erosion; determining land use; deciding conservation treatment; classifying soils; and protecting groundwater quality. Methods for soil conservation activities, ranging from the ranking of the lands most susceptible to erosion to the measurement and prediction of both wind and water erosion, are recommended throughout the volume.




Assessing the Environmental Impact of Farm Policies


Book Description

This volume explores the environmental impact of farm policies on farm programmes and environmental goals, along with the environmental consequences of alternatives to the current farm programmes.




Predicting Soil Erosion by Water


Book Description

Introduction and history; Rainfall-runoff erosivity factor (R); Soil erodibility factor (K); Slope length and steepness factors (LS); Cover-management factor (C); Support practice factor (P); RUSLE user guide; Coversion to SI metric system; Calculation of EI from recording-raingage records; Estimating random roughness in the field; Parameter values for major agricultural crops and tillage operations.




Agricultural Conservation Program


Book Description




Shifting Cultivation Policies


Book Description

Shifting cultivation supports around 200 million people in the Asia-Pacific region alone. It is often regarded as a primitive and inefficient form of agriculture that destroys forests, causes soil erosion and robs lowland areas of water. These misconceptions and their policy implications need to be challenged. Swidden farming could support carbon sequestration and conservation of land, biodiversity and cultural heritage. This comprehensive analysis of past and present policy highlights successes and failures and emphasizes the importance of getting it right for the future. This book is enhanced with supplementary resources. The addendum chapters can be found at: www.cabi.org/openresources/91797