EARSeL Conference in Dubrovnik

This is represented by rapidly growing settled areas. Due to an increased demand for local foods the agricultural area was expanded mainly by irrigation, which leads to declining water levels of the Yellow River - a small scale socio economic problem. Each year farmers can extract less and less water from the river and have difficulties to meet their water demands. Furthermore the spread of mining waste and coal dust supports local degradation phenomena. Impacts of coal mining and coal fires on slow onset land degradation and desertification will have to be investigated.