Advantages and disadvantages of terracing: A comprehensive review
September 2021
For thousands of years, terracing has been one of the most important systems for preventing soil erosion, conserving water, and increasing agricultural production. Despite having a long history, the...
Soil degradation: An integrated model of the causes and drivers
December 2025
Soil plays a critical role in seven existential challenges that threaten sustainable development of human society. However, despite this integrative role, humans generally focus on the use of soil to...
Critical review of the impact of cover crops on soil properties
September 2022
Grasses as well as leguminous and non-leguminous broadleaves are the major categories of commonly grown cover crops worldwide. This review focuses on the contribution of cover crops to soil properties....
Remote sensing of soil degradation: Progress and perspective
September 2023
Soils constitute one of the most critical natural resources and maintaining their health is vital for agricultural development and ecological sustainability, providing many essential ecosystem services....
Determination of runoff coefficient (C) in catchments based on analysis of precipitation and flow events
June 2022
Runoff coefficient (C) values are tabulated and enshrined in hydrological engineering. These values are considered to be constant although they may not correspond to reality. In the same catchment,...
Challenges and constraints of conservation agriculture adoption in smallholder farms in sub-Saharan Africa: A review
December 2024
Common farming practices in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) such as intensive and repeated tillage, complete crop residue removal, and biomass burning create risks of soil degradation. To reduce these risks,...
Using the USLE: Chances, challenges and limitations of soil erosion modelling
September 2019
To give soils and soil degradation, which are among the most crucial threats to ecosystem stability, social and political visibility, small and large scale modelling and mapping of soil erosion is inevitable....
Conservation tillage impacts on soil, crop and the environment
June 2015
There is an urgent need to match food production with increasing world population through identification of sustainable land management strategies. However, the struggle to achieve food security should...
Hydro-learning: Integrating AI with SWAT for multi-resolution flow and sediment prediction in data-scarce basins
Available online 14 November 2025
One of the main challenges in predicting hydrological processes like streamflow and sediment yield in ungauged catchments is the lack of calibration data. Approaches such as regionalization, parameter...
A systematic review of soil erosion control practices on the agricultural land in Asia
June 2020
Soil is the basis of production in agriculture activities. The combination of intensive farming activities, improper farming practices, rainfall regimes, and topography conditions that taken place in...
Best management practices to reduce soil erosion and change water balance components in watersheds under grain and dairy production
March 2024
Soil erosion and sedimentation are among the most serious global environmental problems. Soil and water conservation measures have been proven effective ways to reduce soil loss. The objective of this...
The USLE soil erodibility nomograph revisited
March 2023
The nomograph by Wischmeier et al. (1971) for calculating the K-factor in the USLE was extremely useful when there was low access to calculators. However, the generalised calculation of this factor...
Emerging pollutants in the environment: A challenge for water resource management
1 March 2015
A significant number of emerging pollutants (EPs) resulting from point and diffuse pollution is present in the aquatic environment. These are chemicals that are not commonly monitored but have the potential...
Influence of salinity and water content on soil microorganisms
December 2015
Salinization is one of the most serious land degradation problems facing world. Salinity results in poor plant growth and low soil microbial activity due to osmotic stress and toxic ions. Soil microorganisms...
Peak soil: Is it a useful concept?
Available online 15 November 2025
The concept of peak soil, the hypothetical point at which global soil productivity enters a sustained decline, has emerged as a metaphor for soil degradation. However, there is currently no globally...
Conservation management decreases surface runoff and soil erosion
June 2022
Conservation management practices – including agroforestry, cover cropping, no-till, reduced tillage, and residue return – have been applied for decades to control surface runoff and soil erosion, yet...
A data-driven impact evaluation of nutrient input reduction on wheat yields across Europe
December 2025
The European Union (EU) is one of the largest cereal producers in the world, with wheat covering around one-third of its agricultural area. Sustainable soil management has been put as a key point of...
Heterogeneous patterns of change for annual and seasonal precipitation extremes in China over the past 60 years
Available online 26 November 2025
Global warming is expected to disrupt the hydrological cycle, resulting in changes of precipitation extremes and flooding risk in China. This study investigates spatiotemporal trends in annual and seasonal...
Assessing soil erosion vulnerability using a novel capacity–condition framework (CCF): A case study from New South Wales, Australia
December 2025
Soil water erosion is a major threat to long-term soil sustainability. However, challenges remain in capturing how both natural and human-induced erosion processes interact over space and time to influence...
Biochar derived from agricultural wastes and wood residues for sustainable agricultural and environmental applications
June 2022
Lignocellulosic biomass can be circulated to produce many materials and products, including biochar. This study analyzed five different types of biochar produced from agricultural wastes and wood residues....
Integrated universal soil loss equation (USLE) and Geographical Information System (GIS) for soil erosion estimation in A Sap basin: Central Vietnam
June 2018
Central Vietnam is very susceptible to soil erosion due to its complicated terrain and heavy rainfall. The objective of this study was to quantify soil erosion in the A Sap river basin, A Luoi district, Thua...
Soil erosion assessment by RUSLE with improved P factor and its validation: Case study on mountainous and hilly areas of Hubei Province, China
September 2021
The Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) is widely used to estimate regional soil erosion. However, quantitative impacts of soil and water conservation (SWC) measures on conservation practice...
The effects of armed conflict on natural resources and conservation measures in Tigray, Northern Ethiopia
June 2025
A heavy armed conflict erupted in Tigray region of Ethiopia in 2020, and the crisis continued up to 2022. This study investigates the impacts of this crisis on the status of natural resources, and Soil...
Global mapping of volumetric water retention at 100, 330 and 15 000 cm suction using the WoSIS database
June 2023
Present global maps of soil water retention (SWR) are mostly derived from pedotransfer functions (PTFs) applied to maps of other basic soil properties. As an alternative, ‘point-based’ mapping of soil...
The effect of hydrogel particle size on water retention properties and availability under water stress
September 2019
The use of superabsorbent polymers or hydrogels could increase the water holding capacity (WHC) of sandy soil and reduce water loss by deep percolation. However, hydrogels' retained water availability...