Using National System of Land Monitoring for Assessment of Land Degradation Neutrality in Russia

Actions to assess and combat desertification at the international level are currently associated primarily with the implementation of the modern concept of land degradation neutrality (LDN) in the framework of achieving Target 15.3 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It was found that in the current Russian system of statistical land registration, there are no indicators for monitoring land degradation, except agricultural lands, which could correspond to the LDN indicators. The paper shows the possibilities of integrating land quality indicators and indexes used in Russia into the global land assessment system. It is proposed to streamline the data of various departments through a common agreed consistent system based on LDN indicators, for which a set of requirements is proposed. A conceptual diagram of the formation and a hierarchical structure for a system of land degradation indicators in Russia is proposed, including, on the one hand, dynamic indicators characterizing the LDN achievement, and on the other hand, indicators of the land state characterizing the quality of lands (in terms of risks and results of degradation) in relation to their target objectives use within the respective categories. Based on these approaches, preliminary analysis and selection of indicators from various departmental systems were carried out for integration into the global assessment system based on the LDN methodology. Further ways of integrating national and international systems for assessing land degradation are presented as follows: (a) development of a universal federal list of indicators and indicators for lands of various usage (categories and types); (b) the use of universal qualitative scales of indicators when varying the quantitative values of their indexes (by region, industry, land category, etc.); (c) the use of comparative scales of land quality in relation to both the best (maximization of indicators) and/or worst (minimization of indicators) objects in a given area/region.

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