Excerpt
LAND degradation is perceived to be among the greatest environmental L problems confronting Australia, country with nearly three million square miles (7.7 square kilometers), only about percent of which can support crops and improved pasture (6). Water erosion, wind erosion, loss of vegetation, and salinity are the major causes of land degradation with slightly more than 50 percent of the total rural land area requiring some form of treatment because of these problems (6). Water erosion, the major problem in nonarid regions, is most widespread in eastern Australia. Wind erosion, vegetative degradation, and salinity are greater problems in the arid regions because of the combined effects of drought and overgrazing. The consensus among researchers is that soil erosion is increasing in spite of efforts to combat it.
The effects of agricultural use on water quality are felt in both dryland farming and irrigated areas. Sediment is the most prevalent water pollutant. Removal of vegetative cover by land clearing for agricultural purposes has contributed to salinization watercourses through the rise of ground-water leaving deposits of salt in the soil and through mobilization of salt in the soil allowing it to flow into streams. The soil itself some areas, is …
Footnotes
J. W. Looney is professor, Robert A. Leflar Law Center, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, 72701.
- Copyright 1991 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society
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