Land degradation a matter of attitude? A case study from southern Transylvania (Romania)

Abstract

A better public perception and knowledge on land degradation increases the individual and collective responsibility in land use and land management. Based on interviews, this paper presents results of evaluation of public perception and attitude towards degrading phenomena in the central part of Romania, an area prone to geomorphologic processes, with different land uses and a high proportion of degraded land. The research reveals natural causes, improper land use, categories of land owned, socio-economic causes and involvement of institutions as key aspects of public perception. Our research could be useful in the identification and design of measures in regional planning to attract population in prevention, mitigation and rehabilitation actions on degraded land.

An Analysis of Soil Erosion on Construction Sites in Megacities Using Analytic Hierarchy Process

“…One of the reasons is that it is affected by management factors [51,52]. A more satisfactory public perception and knowledge about land degradation increases the individual and collective responsibility in land use and land management [23,24]. Even construction projects with similar conditions will cause different amounts of soil erosion due to differences in management factors.…”

“…Auburn University has also begun to try to guide construction and management personnel to pay attention to the drainage quality of construction projects through training courses, so as to achieve better control of water loss in CSM [22]. Some studies also mentioned that a better public perception and knowledge of land degradation increases the individual and collective responsibility in land use and land management [23,24]. These two reasons, including unstable impact factors and lack of management awareness, limit the accuracy of USLE in predicting the soil erosion of CSMs.…”