Evaluation and short-list of indicators
After collection of the field data, the most appropriate and effective indicators suited to a 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 will be selected using statistical approaches. Using a principal component analysis, the indicator database will be split in a number of sets with respect to their effects on soil degradation and soil restoration summarised into developed indicators. Additionally the obtained data of the farm surveys will be statistically analyzed separately for each land use type in order to define: (a) the correlation of the defined indicators to the stage of land degradation (correlation coefficient), (b) the interrelationships between various indicators (analysis of covariance), (c) the effectiveness of each indicator to evaluate the sensitivity to desertification (analysis of variance).
Furthermore, a multiple regression analysis will be applied separately for each land use type with dependent variable, the desertification risk and independent variables, the identified indicators and empirical relations will be defined. The results of this work will be fed back to stakeholders to make a final indicator list. Using the obtained empirical relations combined with economic parameters in a systematic fashion, a methodology will be derived for simulating and evaluating the effectiveness of the various management practices and techniques for combating desertification (WB3), using indicators. The obtained results will be incorporated in a manual on "Using Indicators for Identifying Best Land Management Practices for Combating Desertification". Using the farm survey data and following a participatory approach, a comparative analysis will be conducted of the various indicators, applied in the study areas.
A short explanatory is followed helping to describe each indicator. This explanatory is greatly based on the data basis of indicators described in DESERTLINKS project (DIS4ME -Desertification Indicator System for Mediterranean Europe, 2005).
