Monitoring

The most direct improvement in assessment of degradation would be a dramatic increase in routine, regular monitoring. The current situation is inadequate. The most basic information about many forms of degradation is rarely available.

An apparently simple question such as “what is the biodiversity of an ecosystem?” often can only be answered for limited types of species and few locations. Few accurate measurements of species numbers exist for many groups of organisms owing to difficulty in detection (e.g., fungi, beetles, lichens, soil insects). Hence, many global estimates of biodiversity are based on a few, easily observed groups – such as, higher plants, Lepidoptera, birds and larger animals – that are unlikely to be representative of other types of organisms, although they do allow for processes to be tested (see Section 4.4.2). Many biodiversity surveys use habitat as a predictor of species presence (Franklin, 2009), although clearly this is an approximation since even suitable habitats may be unoccupied. Furthermore, much of the existing information is suspect, mostly based on dated and hard to verify data (Chomitz, 2006) (see Section 4.1.6). Without improved information, assessments are inconclusive. Consequently, policymakers have no objective basis for interventions and interest groups lack a solid basis for dialogue.  An example is global mapping of the extent of conversion to urban land cover for which a new method exists (Ying et al., 2017), but has not been repeated for monitoring of trends.  Researchers rarely have the resources for repetitive, routine monitoring – this can only be executed by designated and appropriately resourced institutions- Furthermore, access generally assumes broad-band, high speed internet which may not be available in less-developed countries, limiting local interpretation and dissemination of local data to the broader community. 

In addition, some of the key questions which are still to be addressed are:

• When is it appropriate to transfer an understanding of biophysical degradation between ecosystems?
• How do we extrapolate monitoring and evaluation outcomes from one area to another area that has not been monitored? 
• Is remote sensing the solution for land degradation monitoring and assessment? What is the relative relevance of satellite remote sensing data vs. in situ local knowledge?