An assessment of the global impact of 21st century land use change on soil erosion

Abstract Human activity and related land use change are the primary cause of accelerated soil erosion, which has substantial implications for nutrient and carbon cycling, land productivity and in turn, worldwide socio-economic conditions. Here we present an unprecedentedly high resolution (250 × 250 m) global potential soil erosion model, using a combination of remote sensing, GIS modelling and census data. We challenge the previous annual soil erosion reference values as our estimate, of 35.9 Pg yr −1 of soil eroded in 2012, is at least two times lower. Moreover, we estimate the spatial and temporal effects of land use change between 2001 and 2012 and the potential offset of the global application of…

• NA
  National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• UB
  Universität Basel
• EC
  European Commission
• UG
  U.S. Geological Survey
• JR
  Joint Research Centre