Desertification and land degradation: origins, processes and solutions

Table of Contents

1. Authors and acknowledgements
2. Introduction
   1. Aims
   2. Definitions and key concepts
   3. Synthesis of previous and ongoing projects
   4. Key issues and outline
3. Evolution of desertification in the Mediterranean
   1. Climatic fluctuation
   2. Human influence
4. Primary drivers of desertification
   1. Biophysical and socio-economic causes
   2. Pathways of desertification
   3. Driving forces in the Mediterranean
   4. Synthesis of causes for DESIRE hotspots
   5. Conclusions
5. Processes and consequences of desertification in the Mediterranean
   1. Socio-economic and political factors
   2. Biophysical processes
   3. Conclusions
6. Indicators: monitoring desertification
   1. History of monitoring
   2. Indicators
   3. Monitoring and mapping techniques
   4. Concluding remarks
7. Modelling desertification
   1. Definition of modelling
   2. Model types
   3. Biophysical modelling
   4. Socio-economic and participatory modelling
   5. Gaps and progression in modelling
8. Solutions
   1. Biophysical solutions
   2. Political and socio-economic solutions
9. References

Concluding remarks

Being a complex process, monitoring of desertification is carried through the identification and assessment of indicators. Categories of indicators that play a role in desertification are ecological, economic, social and institutional. An interactive indicator system is DIS4ME that includes 148 indicators in its database. Monitoring and mapping of desertification (risk) is subsequently done by assessing the indicators through various techniques such as expert knowledge, land user perspectives, remote sensing and fieldwork. Remote sensing is robust and fairly accurate, but remains restricted to a physical state assessment of desertification. With expert opinion, the socio-economic aspect can also be assessed.

As desertification and land degradation are dynamic processes, monitoring their indicators should be a continuous activity and evaluation of the results should be done frequently. Caution should be taken in using maps of desertification risk, which have been used as if they were maps of actual desertification (Thomas, 1997).