ASSESSMENT OF THE LAND DEGRADATION NEUTRALITY IN THE SAMARA REGION BY GLOBAL AND REGIONAL INDICATORS

Abstract

The assessment of land degradation neutrality (LDN) is used to characterize the achievement of the UN Sustain-able Development Goal 15 (SDG), Target 15.3 — «to combat desertification, restore degraded lands and soils» by individual countries and regions. The article presents the calculation of land degradation neutrality for agricultural territories of the Samara region using global indicators (dynamics of land productivity, dynamics of land cover, dynamics of soil organic carbon) and regional ones, such as yield, erosion, content of mobile forms of potassium and phosphorus in the soil. The Trends.Earth tool presented on the Quantum GIS was used to calculate the first two global indicators platform. The evaluation of the remaining indicators was carried out using stock data and data from the agrochemical service. According to the results land degradation neutrality was not achieved in the agricultural territories of the Samara region. The indicator of SDG 15.3.1 («the proportion of land that is degraded over total land area») is 78,61%, and the LDN index is –57,22%. The main process leading to a negative LDN index is water erosion, which leads to a decrease in the levels of indicators such as land productivity and humus content.