**8. Arable land degradation in industrial area of south-eastern part of Ukraine**

As it is known, the main sources of anthropogenic contamination are considered metallurgical and chemical enterprises, thermopower plants, and auto-transport. The arable lands within such industrialized areas are heavily degraded. As an example, let us consider the Dnepropetrovsk oblast located in the south-east of Ukraine, where anthropogenic stress of different origin is apparently available.

**Figure 6.** Integrated levels of anthropogenic impact on soil conditions within the Dnepropetrovsk oblast.

**Figure 5.** Land degradation risk within the study area for the periods: 1983–1991 (a) and 1991–2010 (b).

64 Land Degradation and Desertification - a Global Crisis

Agricultural chernozems here also suffer from erosion processes [37]. The humus accumulation regime is disturbed. As a result of ground ablation even of low level, from 0.5 to 2% of ordinary chernozem, humus content is lost. On the average for the oblast, the humus content used to be 5%, but this number is gradually decreasing to 3.7%. The average humus reserves in arable soil level are made up 120 tons/ha. Because of ablation, these reserves decrease up to 73–100 tons/ha.

Previous research [14, 37, 38] studied spread of water erosion and aerotechnogenic contamination on the territory of the Dnepropetrovsk oblast (**Figure 6**). Threaten condition for the small rivers ecosystems were emphasized. Surface layer washing out from the slopes led to water reservoirs silting-up, eutrophication, etc. [39]. The areas where agricultural works are worth carrying out are shown on the map. The soils here are the least subjected to water erosion and anthropogenic contamination, and so they are eligible for the safe crop growth.

**Figure 7.** Soils moisture change within the left bank area of the Dnepropetrovsk oblast in 1988–2013.

Previous research [14, 37, 38] studied peculiarities of arable land degradation caused with several factors (arid climate, water and wind erosion, irrigation, salinization, old tillage systems application, acid rains, etc.). Additional environmental risks for the small rivers ecosystems were emphasized. In particular, surface layer washing out from the slopes led to water reservoirs silting-up, eutrophication, etc. [39]. Thus, all environmental risks of land degradation were taken in account to overlay them to select areas with four levels: high, medium, low and no-risk. High and medium levels of land degradation are the reason to recommend a special phytoremediation and biomelioration measures. Low level of land degradation can be improved with low external input and sustainable agriculture.

Previous research [14, 37, 38] studied spread of water erosion and aerotechnogenic contamination on the territory of the Dnepropetrovsk oblast (**Figure 6**). Threaten condition for the small rivers ecosystems were emphasized. Surface layer washing out from the slopes led to water reservoirs silting-up, eutrophication, etc. [39]. The areas where agricultural works are worth carrying out are shown on the map. The soils here are the least subjected to water erosion

and anthropogenic contamination, and so they are eligible for the safe crop growth.

66 Land Degradation and Desertification - a Global Crisis

**Figure 7.** Soils moisture change within the left bank area of the Dnepropetrovsk oblast in 1988–2013.

Previous research [14, 37, 38] studied peculiarities of arable land degradation caused with several factors (arid climate, water and wind erosion, irrigation, salinization, old tillage systems application, acid rains, etc.). Additional environmental risks for the small rivers ecosystems were emphasized. In particular, surface layer washing out from the slopes led to water reservoirs silting-up, eutrophication, etc. [39]. Thus, all environmental risks of land degradation were taken in account to overlay them to select areas with four levels: high, medium, low and no-risk. High and medium levels of land degradation are the reason to Agricultural practices strongly depend on precipitation level. In the southern parts of the country, the amount of moisture in the soils remains one of the most important factors for the safe crop growth. To assess remotely the soil moisture, we used satellite imagery of Landsat-4,5/TM, Landsat-7/ETM+ and Landsat-8/OLI,TIRS with 30 m spatial resolution for the period 1998–2013. Registered at sensor radiance was recalculated into spectral reflectance of land surface taking into account the atmosphere influence—for visible, near, and short-wave infrared bands, and into the land surface temperature—for the thermal infrared bands [40]. Based on the ground measurements of the soil moisture on the test sites, the curvilinear regression relationship with remotely determined value ln(*Iw/T*+1) [41] was restored, where *Iw* = *ρ*green*/*(*ρ*green+*ρ*swir)—normalized water index, *ρ*green and *ρ*swir—land surface reflectance in green and short-wave infrared spectral bands, respectively, *T*—the land surface temperature. So, in this way, the soil moisture spatial distribution was mapped. Comparison of the remote sensing data and ground measurement results allowed us to study the soil moisture change within the left bank area of the Dnepropetrovsk oblast for the last 25 years (**Figure 7**).

Analysis of long-term change of soil moisture within the left bank of the Dnepropetrovsk oblast allowed us to elicit trends and to interpolate the results spatially. In particular, it was discovered that more than 50% of studied arable lands were in unfavourable conditions of different level drying.
