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The Coastal Cordillera of central Chile is naturally sensitive to soil erosion due to moderate to steep slopes, intense winter rains when the vegetation cover is scarce, and deeply weathered granitic rocks. In 1965, 60 per cent of its surface was moderately to very severely eroded. Today this process is still largely active, but no data are currently available to evaluate the real extent, distribution and severity of soil degradation on a regional scale. This information is vital to support efficient soil conservation plans.

A multi-scale approach was implemented to produce regional land degradation maps based on remote sensing technologies. Fieldwork has shown that the surface colour or ’redness’ and the density of coarse fragments are pertinent erosion indicators to describe a typical sequence of soil degradation in the context of mediterranean soil developed on granitic materials and micaschists. Field radiometric experiments concluded that both factors influence the reflectance of natural surfaces and can be modelled using radiometric indices accessible from most satellites operating in the optical domain, i.e. redness index and brightness index. Finally the radiometric indices were successfully applied to SPOT images to produce land degradation maps. Only broad classes of erosion status were discriminated and the detection of the degradation processes was only possible when most of the fertile layer had already been removed. This technology provides decision-making information required to develop regional soil conservation plans and to prioritize actions between catchment areas, especially in vast inter-tropical regions where spatialized data are not always readily available. Copyright (c) 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.