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Land Degradation Surveillance Framework (LDSF)

Use this tool to
Develop and follow a comprehensive and systematic methodology to monitor soil and land health using a combination of field, lab, and remote sensing data
End Product(s)

Metrics of land cover, land use, soil health, and land degradation; modeled maps of fractional vegetation cover, soil organic carbon, soil erosion and soil pH; technical training and capacity building to apply the methodology.

The Land Degradation Surveillance Framework (LDSF) is a comprehensive methodology for monitoring, assessing, and reporting the soil and ecosystem health of a landscape. It provides a framework of standard indicators for establishing a biophysical baseline that can be used for monitoring changes over time. Users receive field-level guidance on collecting data for each indicator. Once data are collected, they can be uploaded to a centralized LDSF database where they are quality-checked, analyzed, and used to create maps of ecosystem health. The data can be viewed and reported as part of an interactive dashboard at: https://landscapeportal.org/ and https://dashboards.icraf.org/. Users must access LDSF in collaboration with ICRAF and ICRAF works to build capacity for new users to complete the data collection and analysis.

The LDSF is focused on terrestrial ecosystems and can be used to assess baseline status of vegetation cover and structure; tree, shrub, and grass species diversity; current and historic land use; infiltration capacity; soil characteristics (including soil organic carbon); and land degradation (including soil erosion prevalence). The LDSF is designed to work at multiple scales and to monitor multiple variables simultaneously. Recognizing that significant resources are spent to reach remote field sites, the LDSF attempts to maximize time and resource use by streamlining data collection for multiple indicators or variables. The LDSF is flexible, allowing users to monitor the indicators that are most relevant to their context. It is integrated with field-level data collection tools like the Regreening Africa App, lab-based soil analysis through spectroscopy, and remote sensing spatial analysis. The LDSF and related tools were co-designed with relevant user groups. LDSF’s extensive datasets facilitate modeling, so in selecting sites for in-depth monitoring with LDSF, ICRAF prioritizes regions and activities where the LDSF data is weak.

Scale
Site, Landscape
Technical skills/resources required
Familiarity with field-sampling techniques
Cost
Dependent on context and the field survey costs by country.
Language(s) available
English, French