Land Degradation & Development is an international journal which seeks to promote rational study of the recognition, monitoring, control and rehabilitation of degradation in terrestrial environments. The journal focuses on: what land degradation is; what causes land degradation; the impacts of land degradation; the scale of land degradation; the history, current status or future trends of land degradation; avoidance, mitigation and control of land degradation; remedial actions to rehabilitate or restore degraded land; sustainable land management.

Land degradation may be defined as the loss of utility or potential utility through the reduction of or damage to physical, social, cultural or economic features, and/or reduction of ecosystem diversity. There may be a single cause or a complex mix of causes, some may be biogeophysical ('natural'), some socioeconomic ('human') and it is quite possible that cause(s) will be indirect, perhaps cumulative and difficult to identify.

A major challenge is to learn how interactions between development and environment can be better managed to increase prospects for ecologically and socially sustainable improvements to human well-being. Development means attempts to improve human well-being or environmental quality in rich and poor nations on a sustained basis (sustainable development)
The subject matter will include the following topics:

ENVIRONMENTS
Degradation of: deserts, savannas, rangelands; forests, woodlands, tundra; mountain environments; wetlands, floodlands; farmland, irrigated land; sand-dunes; coastal zones, islands, urban, peri-urban environments. In polar, temperate, subtropical and tropical regions.

PROCESSES
'Desertification', rangeland degradation; soil degradation (compaction, loss of fertility, reduced organic matter, pollution, waterlogging, acidification, salinization, alkalinization, 'laterite' and hard-pan formation); erosion; degradation of vegetation cover, 'deforestation'; impoverishment of wildlife habitats, loss of species.

CAUSES
Climatic change; sea-level variation; drought; storms; earth processes (geomorphological, volcanicity, natural leaching of soils); bushfires; degradation as a consequence of: industry, urban growth, agrochemicals, agricultural modernization, energy production/consumption, mining, warfare, refugees or migrants, breakdown of traditional landuse strategies, altered communications, legislative changes, demographic changes, administrative causes, institutional causes, social or economic causes.

PERCEPTIONS
Perception/recognition of degradation, attitudes toward degradation; ethics and land degradation; indicators; monitoring, surveillance; assessment of significance; establishing past, present and future trends.

IMPACTS
Physical, biological, social, cultural and economic impacts (direct, indirect, cumulative); long-term and short-term impacts; assessment of significance; aesthetic impact of degradation.

RESPONSES AND MANAGEMENT
Mapping; databases; management of monitoring, management of responses; sustainable land management; funding degradation control or rehabilitation; education to counter land degradation; role of governmental organizations in managing land degradation; Non-governmental organizations and land degradation; community participation and land degradation management; the law and land degradation.