Space for the UNCCD and the Desertwatch Project
Publication year
Resource type
UNCCD Library
Material Type
ebook
The ESA DesertWatch project goal was to develop an Information System for assessing and monitoring desertification using EO technologies, in order to support local authorities in reporting to the UNCCD.
The project has selected the most robust and reliable methodologies developed during the related research projects, integrating them into a unique environment, which is easy to use, as automatic as possible, and cost effective. The system outputs consist in a series of desertification indicators and products, generated at regional, national and sub-national scale.
For demonstration purposes these products have been implemented over large areas of Portugal, Italy and Turkey for the years 1984, 1994 and 2004. The validation phase has shown that the results are in line with the user requirements. The system has been much appreciated by the final users and will physically be utilized by various national and local authorities. The possibility of expanding the system in extra-European countries is under evaluation.
This work becomes with methodological rigor a part of the innovative proposals for the characterization of the areas at risk of desertification. The complexity of the phenomenon of desertification, which involves extended surfaces in all continents, is one of the most alarming processes of the environmental degradation of our Planet and threatens the health and the living conditions of over a billion of persons. The food crisis, in continuous increase, ask for the world of research to urgently supply reassuring solutions concerning the acquisition of indicators, which are easy to monitor and concur to control the phenomenon in order to fight its acceleration.
The constant but different combination that determines the diffusion of deserti- cation in the territories, attributable mostly to climatic changes and the activities of the man, makes our job challenging and complicated, since it varies from region to region. We are aware of all this and therefore we think that the methodological approach of survey of the data is an extremely important element to locate of the phenomenon and to monitor its course. This work, which is characterized for its multi-disciplinary approach, suggests solutions that we wish will quickly find concrete applications at international level. Prof. Bruno Dettori President CNLSD (Comitato Nazionale per la Lotta alla Siccità e alla Desertificazione)
The project has selected the most robust and reliable methodologies developed during the related research projects, integrating them into a unique environment, which is easy to use, as automatic as possible, and cost effective. The system outputs consist in a series of desertification indicators and products, generated at regional, national and sub-national scale.
For demonstration purposes these products have been implemented over large areas of Portugal, Italy and Turkey for the years 1984, 1994 and 2004. The validation phase has shown that the results are in line with the user requirements. The system has been much appreciated by the final users and will physically be utilized by various national and local authorities. The possibility of expanding the system in extra-European countries is under evaluation.
This work becomes with methodological rigor a part of the innovative proposals for the characterization of the areas at risk of desertification. The complexity of the phenomenon of desertification, which involves extended surfaces in all continents, is one of the most alarming processes of the environmental degradation of our Planet and threatens the health and the living conditions of over a billion of persons. The food crisis, in continuous increase, ask for the world of research to urgently supply reassuring solutions concerning the acquisition of indicators, which are easy to monitor and concur to control the phenomenon in order to fight its acceleration.
The constant but different combination that determines the diffusion of deserti- cation in the territories, attributable mostly to climatic changes and the activities of the man, makes our job challenging and complicated, since it varies from region to region. We are aware of all this and therefore we think that the methodological approach of survey of the data is an extremely important element to locate of the phenomenon and to monitor its course. This work, which is characterized for its multi-disciplinary approach, suggests solutions that we wish will quickly find concrete applications at international level. Prof. Bruno Dettori President CNLSD (Comitato Nazionale per la Lotta alla Siccità e alla Desertificazione)
Keywords
desertification risk
mapping land degradation
desertification monitoring
indicators
space-based observations
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