The Land Degradation Surveillance Framework (LDSF) is a comprehensive method for assessing soil and land health, from the field to the use of new and advanced data analytics. Land health generally refers to the degree to which the integrity of the soil, vegetation, water and air, as well as ecological processes, are balanced and sustained.The LDSF provides a consistent set of indicators and field protocols to assess the “health” of an ecosystem. This includes vegetation cover and structure, tree, shrub and grass species diversity, current and historic land use, infiltration capacity, soil characteristics and land degradation status. It can also be used as part of monitoring frameworks to detect changes over time.

This is the presentation from the session:

LDSF Webpage: http://landscapeportal.org/blog/2015/03/25/the-land-degradation-surveillance-framework-ldsf/ 


LDSF Flyer: https://worldagroforestry.org/output/land-degradation-surveillance-framework 


LDSF Field Guide: https://worldagroforestry.org/output/land-degradation-surveillance-framework-field-guide

The LDSF was developed by the authors and colleagues over several years of land degradation research in Kenya's Lake Victoria basin, Madagascar, Mali and southern Africa. The LDSF is designed to provide a biophysical baseline at landscape level, and a monitoring and evaluation framework for assessing processes of land degradation and the effectiveness of rehabilitation measures (recovery) over time. The framework is built around a hierarchical field survey and sampling protocol using sites that are 100 km2 (10 x 10 km). 

Use of the LDSF and citizen science monitoring in the Regreening Africa project: 

https://regreeningafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/LDD-Brief.pdf