In the second part of the 20th century the importance of soil degradation as an important threat to food security and other ecosystem services was accepted in many countries, including the USSR (Snakinet al., 1996).Maps of the various soil degradation processes in the region have been made (e.g. Sobolev, 1968; Bazilevich and Pankova, 1976) and results were incorporated in the global GLASOD study (Oldeman et al.,1991). Results of this study were questioned because they reflected
expert-opinion rather than objective measured criteria (Sonneveld and Dent, 2009).