LADA Degradation Index

Land degradation is a complex set of processes of impoverishment of terrestrial ecosystems mainly under the impact of human activities. Land degradation can be understood as the gradual or permanent loss of productivity of the land to produce ecosystem goods and services. During the Land Degradation Assessment in Drylands (LADA) project, the South African National Assessment of Land Degradation and Conservation was done between 2008 and 2011. 728 Contributing specialists throughout the country contribute their knowledge and experience on land degradation and sustainable land management during a series of 34 Participatory Expert Assessment Workshops. It is important to notice that the results of these national assessments are qualitative in nature and based on the perceptions of contributing specialists based on the assumption that they all know their respective assessment areas well enough to report on land degradation and conservation attributes. Variables on the state of land degradation (the extend, degree and rate of degradation processes) were combined with the level of impact of these degradation processes on ecosystem services to provide an unique Degradation Index (DI) for each type of degradation identified by the contributing specialist for each mapping unit as defined by the LADA Land Use Map for South Africa. The DI values range from 0 to 100, for all degradation types identified. The higher the DI value, the more degraded the area are.