Includes bibliographical references and index

Basic concepts: degradation, resilience and rehabilitation--Soil quality and sustainability--Methodologies for assessment of soil degradation due to water erosion--Modeling erosion by water and wind--Soil crusting--Hardsetting--Assessment. prevention, and rehabilitation of soil structure caused by soil surface sealing, crusting and compaction--Soil compaction--The characteristics of soil organic matter relative to nutrient cycling--Soil processes and greenhouse effect--Acidification--Estimating nutrient balances in agro-ecosystems at different spatial scales--Salt buildup as a factor of soil degradation--Sodic soils--Soil pollution and contamination--Acid sulfate soils--Long-term characterization: monitoring and modeling--Scaling and extrapolation of soil degradation assessments--Applications of geographic information systems in soil degradation--Remote sensing applications to soil degradation assessments--Mapping soil degradation--Revisiting the Glasod methodology--Desertification assessment--Agronomic impact of soil degradation--Methods of economic assessment of on-site and off-site costs of soil degradation--The on-farm economic costs of erosion--Methods for assessing the impacts of soil degradation on water quality--Research and development priorities.