A landscape devoid of nutrients, soil and/or moisture; see also, overgrazing, slash and burn, deforestation, erosion, scorched earth.

The Wasteland is a Celtic motif that ties the barrenness of a land with a curse that must be lifted by a hero. Some arguments are more convincing than others, however. In one of the more popular works on the subject, From Ritual to Romance, author Jessie Weston suggested that the origin of the motif lie with an otherwise unattested pagan fertility cult. The book is mostly disregarded today, though T. S. Eliot credited it as the source of the title and some incidental symbolism in his famous poem The Waste Land.

(WASTELAND by Wikipedia)