Intense agriculture, overgrazing, logging, and urbanization can degrade land through loss of soil and vegetation cover, exposing the land to erosion. This strips nutrients from the soil, reduces future crop and animal production, and pollutes water sources. Water impoundment and shoreline alterations also impact land and aquatic ecosystems by changing sediment and water flows, altering natural habitats and reducing fisheries. Sustainable land management practices are needed to preserve land productivity and ecosystem services.

1. ^Positive land use ^

3.  Agriculture – Intense
use can cause loss of
soil, erosion, and dust
storms. Use of
pesticides can affect
both surface water and
groundwater quality.
 Intense irrigation
causes water loss from
the natural system

4.  Over-farming
takes important
nutrients out of
the soil making
it useless for
any further
production of
crops

5.  Pesticides poison
the water that
plants, animals, and
humans use daily

6.  Grazing – Overgrazing can cause loss of
vegetation, invasion of exotic species, soil
erosion, and nutrient loss.

7.  Grazing lands are the most degraded land use
types in the world
 Overgrazing along with over-trampling lead to
the reduction of vegetative cover, exposure of
soil to erosion, and ultimately to desertification

8.  The most
common
overgrazing is
done by
domestic
animals

9.  Forestry– Intense
logging or clear cutting
creates conditions for
increased erosion;
eroded and
transported sediment
can cause increased
sediment loading in
streams, which could
affect fluvial habitat.

10.  Logging takes nutrients and minerals out the
soil
 Logging makes erosion easier because the the
tree is no longer there to hold the soil and
water

12.  Water impoundment – This has the potential
to affect one segment of a stream or river or
an entire watershed. Controlled volume of
flow does not duplicate natural events, such
as floods and drought. It can affect the
sediment load, change the stream
morphology, and alter the habitat that is
dependent on a fluvial system.

13.  Water
impoundment can
deplete different
species of fish by
altering their
natural habitat
 It yields a flow of
ecosystem
services such as
nutrient cycling

14.  Water
impoundment puts
a halt on an
important
ecosystem service
provided by rivers:
fisheries
production

15.  Urbanization – This can cause a host of
impacts, but a few stand outs are: change in
drainage patterns because of impervious
surfaces (streets, parking lots, pavement,
buildings), increased erosion, affects on
surface and groundwater quality and quantity,
release of toxins into the air, increased
humidity in arid regions

16.  Impervious
surfaces affects
infiltration
capacity which
also creates
erosion
 New construction
affects sediment
input into the
streams

20.  Alterations to shorelines – Dredging, beach
mining, river modification, installation of
protective structures, and removal of back-
shore vegetation can potentially alter
shoreline processes, position, and
morphology by changing the sediment supply,
transport, and erosion.

21.  Installation of dams
reduces the amount
of sediments flowing
which can cause
erosion on the
shores

22.  Mythili, R. G. "Significance of the Problem." Web. 05 Mar.
2011. <http://coe.mse.ac.in/pdfs/coebreifs/Mythi
li.pdf>.
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 Conservation biology the journal of the Society for
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23 5
 Journal of applied ecology, 2009 Feb., v. 46, no. 1, p. 154-163.
46 1
 Lakes & Reservoirs: Research & Management; Sep/Dec2003,
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