Several recent reports on cropland soil organic carbon (SOC) stock changes throughout Europe indicate a general continuing loss of SOC from these soils. As most arable soils in Europe are not in an equilibrium situation because of past changes in land-use and management practices, shifts in both have been suggested to drive this decline of SOC stocks. A lack of data has prevented the unambiguous verification of the contribution of these factors to SOC loss.

Direct applications of remote sensing thermal infrared (TIR) data in landscape ecological research are rare due to limitations in the sensors, calibration, and difficulty in interpretation. Currently there is a general lack of methodology for examining the relationship between land surface temperatures (LST) derived from TIR data and landscape patterns extracted from optical sensors. A separation of landscapes into values directly related to their scale and signature is a key step.

As a global and regional environmental problem, desertification assessment is an instrumental component in developing global/regional actions plans aimed at preventing and/or eradicating desertification issues. Using a landscape assessment approach allows for relatively quick assessments of desertification that can then be used in developing practicable application plans at the regional level in desertification prevention planning and decision-making.