Rangeland Ecology & Management

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INTERNATIONAL COOPERATIVE DEVELOPMENT OF TECHNIQUES FOR SUSTAINABILITY WHEN MANAGING AND RESTORING DEGRADED RANGELANDS
Author
Yespolov, Tlektes
Beksultanov, Marat
Strohmeier, Stefan
Haddad, Mira
Weltz, Mark A.
Nouwakpo, Sayjro K.
Spaeth, Kenneth
Burns, Ian
Nesbit, Jason
Publisher
Society for Range Management
Publication Year
2018
Body

In the United States, 36% of the land is rangeland with 25% of it privately owned and vulnerable to accelerated soil loss. Soil erosion from mismanagement, desertification, and drought affect more than 50% of Asia and 70% of Middle Eastern rangelands. Soil erosion prone rangelands often have decreased vegetation cover, changes in vegetation composition, and altered hydrologic cycle with subsequent loss of productivity and livestock forage availability. While land managers cannot control climate, they can continuously apply and modify management practices to increase ecological potential of a site and promote initiatives for more resilient rangelands. For many Asian and Middle Eastern countries, preventing soil erosion and desertification while mitigating the effects of drought are pre-requisites for economic growth and food security. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists are working with Kazakh National Agrarian University in Kazakhstan and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), in Jordan to develop a multiphase approach to validate and deploy various rangeland assessment technologies. The multiphase approach combines use of onsite rangeland assessments, drone and satellite imagery, and natural resource support systems to identify areas with accelerated soil erosion. Once areas of concern are identified, alternative scenarios for arresting soil erosion and rehabilitating the area can be evaluated using the Rangeland Hydrology and Erosion Model (RHEM) and the KINEROS2 watershed model to prioritize and optimize restoration. Typical rangeland assessments for Kazakhstan, Jordan, and the western United States are presented along with discussion of how this approach can be used to inform resource managers to make decisions that increases stability and promotes sustainability of rangelands. Increasing sustainable rangeland management practices and building resiliency to drought across Asia, the Middle East, and the United States, can have a positive economic and environmental impact from a localized to global scale.

Language
English
Resource Type
Text
Document Type
Conference Proceedings
Conference Name
SRM Reno, NV