Exposure: land use and land degradation in times of violent conflict

This Chapter 5 is the first of the selection of chapters empirically developing the concepts that were theoretically explored in Chapters 2 and 3. It initiates the book’s Part 1 that is dedicated to empirical investigations of North Lebanon’s exposure and sensitivity to armed conflict and its environmental effects. The chapter investigates exposure to environmental damage and land degradation in association with armed conflict. In this context, exposure to environmental damage depends on location, proximity to the source of threat, probability or frequency of the event, intensity, duration, and spatial impact. Overall, we argue that while recurrent armed conflicts directly and indirectly contributed to increased exposure to environmental damage and land degradation, other factors related to human activities could also worsen the environmental situation.