ИСТИНА

Land disturbance leads to degradation of an entire landscape and loss of human life quality. Economic assessment of reasons and consequences of land degradation is highly important for development of the algorithm for optimal land resources management. Traditionally, in Russian Federation such assessment is performed by means of evaluation of land damage cost, caused by such degradation processes as: erosion, dehumification, contamination, salinization, etc. Thereby, the damage cost should include costs for recovery of the territory and the value of lost profits. There are developed and approved western methodologies for land degradation assessment, including those based on the conception of lost ecosystem services (Costanza et al., 1997, 2014) and on the cost comparison of activity and inactivity during degradation processes (von Braun et al., 2013). Land degradation assessment was carried out at two agricultural enterprises located in Moscow region by means of damage evaluation (federal Russian methodologies were applied), economic interpretation of ecosystem services and costs assessment of activity and inactivity during degradation processes. Water erosion (surface and gully), agricultural exhaustion and soil contamination are the major types of degradation identified in frames of this investigation. Land degradation decree of all soil types was assessed using approved in Russia 5-point grade scale. Land degradation level of the agricultural enterprises, assessed by erosion and agricultural exhaustion parameters, was higher than the level of degradation, evaluated by using parameters of soil contamination with heavy metals, oil compounds, and benzo(a)pyrene. NDVI value was used as one of the land degradation parameters for the cost estimation of activity and inactivity. Economic evaluation of services for maintaining ecosystems’ life, for protection, for direct resources supply, and cultural services was performed. Sustainable land management systems were developed based on the obtained results of different types of economic assessment of land degradation at the agricultural enterprises.