Desertification Risk Assessment Tool is an expert system designed to provide an estimation of land desertification risk through the selection of appropriate degradation processes and corresponding indicators. Risk assessment was performed to identify the most appropriate and effective indicators suited to a wide range of local physical and socio-economic conditions for assessing the effectiveness of the various land management practices in land uses and landscapes prone to desertification. In this context, the advantages of computer technology and specifically of the expert systems are unambiguous. Such an incorporation may be of use in achieving:

• the analysis of a wide range of alternatives for land management practices;
• the evaluation and selection of the main indicators through which desertification risk may be assessed in a variety of locales worldwide;
• the development of a consensus among various groups (politicians, managers, experts, etc.) in assessing desertification risks and thus, the Tool becomes the arena of focused disagreement.

In this regard, the Tool may allow the decision-makers to generate appropriate and timely desertification measures. It may also provide a standard for assessing the effectiveness of the various land management practices. The program is designed to run in a Windows environment. An effort was made that the program would be user friendly and self-explanatory, guiding the user step by step.

More details ... download the Desertification Risk Assessment Tool and accompanying documentation
	WP2.2 Desertification Risk Assessment Tool software (v5g) WP2.2 Desertification Risk Assessment Tool library files (v5d) WP2.2 Desertification Risk Assessment Tool documentation (v5g) WP2.2 Desertification Risk Assessment Tool install instructions (v1b)