Soil Degradation and Socioeconomic Systems’ Complexity: Uncovering the Latent Nexus

Abstract: Understanding Soil Degradation Processes (SDPs) is a fundamental issue for humankind.
Soil degradation involves complex processes that are influenced by a multifaceted ensemble of
socioeconomic and ecological factors at vastly different spatial scales. Desertification risk (the ultimate
outcome of soil degradation, seen as an irreversible process of natural resource destruction) and
socioeconomic trends have been recently analyzed assuming “resilience thinking” as an appropriate
interpretative paradigm. In a purely socioeconomic dimension, resilience is defined as the ability of a
local system to react to external signals and to promote future development. This ability is intrinsically
bonded with the socio-ecological dynamics characteristic of environmentally homogeneous districts.
However, an evaluation of the relationship between SDPs and socioeconomic resilience in local
systems is missing in mainstream literature. Our commentary formulates an exploratory framework
for the assessment of soil degradation, intended as a dynamic process of natural resource depletion,
and the level of socioeconomic resilience in local systems. Such a framework is intended to provide
a suitable background to sustainability science and regional policies at the base of truly resilient
local systems.