CASE STUDIES OF DESERTIFICATION MONITORING. -A DISCUSSION OF EU INITIATIVES
Author
Editor
- Giuseppe Enne
- Maria eroyanni
Summary, in English
Desertification, at the beginning of last century, meant the spreading (expansion) of deserts or desert-like (non productive or very low productive) conditions from existing deserts into non-desert areas close to the desert margins. The symptoms of the phenomena were often related to sand movement and encroachment into oasis and desert margins. Aubreville also stated in 1949 that there are real deserts being born, under our very eyes, in the 700-1500 mm annual rainfall areas.
At that time, one school favored the idea of a postglacial long term climate change (desiccation) as a major driving force causing desertification. Others stressed the importance of human impact. The human impact was expressed in terms of bad management of the natural resources including over cutting, overgrazing, over cultivation and misuse of water.
Since then, different concepts of desertification have developed and been discussed over and over again by scientists, politicians and the international aid and development society. Important international events were UNCOD in Nairobi 1977, UNCED in Rio de Janeiro 1992 followed up by the UNCCD adopted in 1994 and entering into force in 1996.
The choice of land degradation mitigation strategies and the degree of resulting control success varies with the prevailing concepts of causes and consequences. These concepts are dependent on the monitoring approach used. This is exemplified through a discussion of a few desertification monitoring case studies followed by a presentation of a recent EU integrated assessment, monitoring and modelling initiative, DeSurvey (2005-2010). The initiative is targeting desertification affected areas in Europe, Africa, China and South America. It probably constitutes the largest ever international research project to exclusively focus on desertification surveillance and assessment.
Conclusion: The causes, consequences and methods of control of desertification cannot be generalized but are site specific. Every site and case needs its own diagnosis, based on an integrated and systemic survey approach, before the right cure can be identified and implemented. The DeSurvey consortium aims at developing a generic survey, monitoring and modelling system for such an approach.
Department/s
Publishing year
2005
Language
English
Pages
195-203
Publication/Series
Proceedings: Local & Regional Desertification Indicators in a Global Perspective
Full text
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Document type
Conference paper
Publisher
European Commission
Topic
- Physical Geography
Keywords
- desertification
- modelling
- monitoring
- EU
Conference name
Local & Regional Desertification Indicators in a Global Perspective.-AIDCCD-Active exchange of experience on indicators and development of prespectives in the context of UNCCD
Conference date
2005-05-16 - 2005-05-18
Conference place
Beijing, China
Status
Published
Project
- FP6, DeSurvey IP 2005-2010, A Surveillance System for Assessing and Monitoring Desertification