ИСТИНА

Degradation of land and water resources in Central Asia became significant processes in the past decades. Novel methods of understanding, monitoring, controlling and combating those processes should contribute to halt resource degradation by initiating sustainable use of land and water. An array of methods is available which can provide a knowledge shift in agri-environmental research, monitoring and agricultural practice. They include laboratory and field measurement methods, methods of resource evaluation, functional mapping and risk assessment, remote sensing methods for monitoring and modelling large areas, methods of ecosystem modelling, methods of soil and water bioremediation, field soil monitoring methods, and technologies for optimising land use systems. We present some innovations for understanding, monitoring and controlling the status of agricultural lands thereby focussing on soil quality evaluation.