Assessing the combined hazards of drought, soil erosion and local flooding on agricultural land: a Czech case study

Present-day agriculture faces multiple challenges, including ongoing climate change is at many locations combined with soil degradation. The deterioration of soil properties unsustainable agricultural practices and changing climate could lead to a fall in productivity the point of no return with devastating effects on ecosystem services in large areas. areas with the highest hazard levels should therefore be a top priority. The key hazards agricultural land in the Czech Republic considered in this study include the occurrence of stress in the topsoil layer during both the first and second half of the growing season, the of fast-drying soils, the risk of sheet and ephemeral gully erosion and the risk of local originating primarily from agricultural land. The results clearly marked regions where primary should be given to reduce the level of the hazards and/or to increase cropping. These regions were found to be concentrated in the southeastern and northwestern lowland. Typical areas with the highest hazard levels were identified: regions with low precipitation a high proportion of soils with a degraded or naturally occurring low water-holding, and those with steeper than average slopes and terrain configurations in relatively large areas that have urbanized countryside landscapes located at their lower elevations. some limitations, the methods presented in this paper can be applied generally as the first in developing strategies for efficient reduction of hazard levels.