Ecological reclamation and reforestation of disturbed land

Τίτλος

Ecological reclamation and reforestation of disturbed land

Θέμα

Restoration ecology

Forest restoration

Δημιουργός

Iacovou, Mariam

Constantinou, Theoti

Πηγή

Higher Technical Institute

Το πλήρες κείμενο είναι διαθέσιμο από το Υπουργείο Ενέργειας, Εμπορίου Βιομηχανίας και Τουρισμού.

Εκδότης

Library of Cyprus University of Technology

Ημερομηνία

2006

Δικαιώματα

Απαγορεύεται η δημοσίευση ή αναπαραγωγή, ηλεκτρονική ή άλλη χωρίς τη γραπτή συγκατάθεση του δημιουργού και κάτοχου των πνευματικών δικαιωμάτων.

Μορφή

pdf

Γλώσσα

en

Τύπος

text

Αναγνωριστικό

CED0410

Σύνοψη

From the dawn of his existence, man has always disturbed the land. Even though its use has altered and increased exponentially, it has always been a means of survival. This has been done either through growing crops for food or through mining economically valuable metals and minerals. Man's activities did not change the landscape drastically, but has changed the natural conditions of land and this should be considered as land disturbance.
The major causes of this disturbance are the extraction and processing of non-renewable resources (fossil fuels, minerals) and wastes from renewable resource use (agriculture, forestry, tourism and recreation). The major challenge in the increasing pressure of development is not the halt of this progression but to create and tune the methods and techniques of bringing these ecosystems back to their original self-sustaining state. The process of restoring the natural state of disturbed areas is a series of carefully planned actions which will ensure the sustainable organization and utilization of renewable resources (soil, flora, water, fauna).
Reclaiming drastically disturbed land results to ecosystems that are basically raised from scratch. The reclamation process begins the minute soils and geological materials are allocated and replaced. It is the moment when the decisions and planning of the new ecosystem are made. These decisions of course are not stagnant but are transformed and changed through time according to the development and climatic differentiations. Changes in nature are inherently slow over long periods of time and this must be taken into serious account when making decisions since the results will not be seen in a short period and careful re-evaluation should be taken periodically in order to avoid harmful and irreversible results.