Desertification and Coral Reef Mapping Projects in Morocco and Kuwait (Google

Read at : Google Alerts – desertification

http://www.pleiades2014.com/wp-content/uploads/SCP13_Bruce.pdf

The Use of Pleiades and TerraSARX Imagery in Desertification and Coral Reef Mapping Projects in Morocco and Kuwait

David BRUCE, Saad ALSHARRAH, Rachid BOUABID, Mahdi GHOLOUM, Sharolyn ANDERSON and Shaker ALHAZEEM

The research reported in this poster relates to two doctoral research projects currently being undertaken at the University of South Australia. Project A (Alsharrah, Bouabid and Bruce) is focused on the use of high spatial resolution remote sensing to improve vegetation inputs to models for desertification and utilizes Pleiades, TerraSAR X, Rapideye, ASTER and Landsat imagery over an arid site on the slopes of the Atlas Mountains in Morocco. Project B (Gholoum, Alhazeem, Anderson and Bruce) concentrates on the use of high spatial resolution remote sensing to improve estimates of coral reef density for the Kubar coral reef system in Kuwaiti waters in the Arabian / Persian Gulf. In pr

oject B WorldView 2 (Multi-Spectral (MS)and Panchromatic (Pan)) imagery are being analyzedtogether with Pleiades-1B and Landsat imagery, and compared with quality field data to assess the accuracy of processing methods

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Using the AHP method and GIS techniques to assess desertification in Iran (ijabbr)

Read at :

http://ijabbr.com/upload/IJABBR-2013-1143.pdf

GIS-based Monitoring and EWSs of Desertification (Case study; southeastern of Iran)

ABSTRACT

Today one of the ecological crisis is the phenomenon of desertification that affecting the world.

Desertification is more related to social and anthropogenic issues than natural causes and it becomes more important over the time. Monitoring is the systematic collection and analysis of information as a project progresses.

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A more accurate way to monitor and predict weather changes (Science Daily)

Read at :

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/08/130831110820.htm

Monitor and Control Severe Drought With Analysis of Data from Chollian

Aug. 31, 2013 — Research team developing a more accurate way to monitor and predict weather changes.

UNIST professor Jung Ho Im received a research grant in “Development of Space Core Technology” from the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF Korea) last June.

Central Korea has been suffering from flooding while the southern part is complaining about hot and dry weather for the last couple of weeks. Weather patterns are no longer statistically predictable.

To mitigate this problem, professor IM’s research team is developing a more accurate way to monitor and predict future weather changes.

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Mapping of desertification severity (Google / IJETAE)

Read at : Google Alerts – desertification

http://www.ijetae.com/files/Volume3Issue6/IJETAE_0613_97.pdf

International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering

http://www.ijetae.com

(ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 3, Issue 6, June 2013) 568

Mapping of desertification severity using expert system approach

Agarwadkar Y., Khire M. V.

CSRE, IIT Bombay, Mumbai, Ind

How remote sensing and GIS have been used to monitor desertification globally (Google / WFL Publisher)

Read at : Google Alerts – desertification

http://world-food.net/using-remote-sensing-technology-to-detect-model-and-map-desertification-a-review/

Using remote sensing technology to detect, model and map desertification: A review

Author: Eman K. Albalawi * and Lalit Kumar

Abstract

Desertification is a serious global environmental problem that affects many people directly in countries with semi-arid or arid climates. The causes of desertification are diverse and complicated, ranging from international economic activities to unsustainable land use practices of local communities. The consequence of desertification reduces the ability of the land to support life and decreases biodiversity.

Natural processes and artificial forces initiate this process. Natural causes of desertification include climatic factors drought, and water or wind erosion. Human induced activities that can cause desertification include over-cultivation, overgrazing, deforestation, and poor water management. The aim of this paper is to analyse how remote sensing and GIS have been used to monitor desertification globally. Remote sensing has proven to be efficient in detecting desertification processes including changes in natural vegetation, land use, and soil.

Multi-temporal coverage provided by satellite data facilitates the use of remote sensing imagery to monitor changes in land coverage and usage over time. Remote sensing data and GIS are critical for extracting reliable information important for assessing environmental changes and land quality in any given region. Various techniques in remote sensing combined with analytical methods such as NDVI or classification provide primary data that can be used to assess desertification processes. Several key indicators of the processes of desertification are identified where remote sensing can be used to detect, monitor, and map affected areas.

Changing vegetation and land use, drought, soil, erosion, and urbanization are the most common indicators of desertification used by researchers. Results of studies can be used to make important management, environmental, and political decisions. Therefore, care, must be taken to use recent imagery, select the appropriate technique, and to include as much additional data as possible so that reliable and robust results are obtained.

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One of the main challenges of responding to early warnings is funding (IRIN News)

Read at :

http://www.irinnews.org/report/98244/linking-early-warning-to-early-action-in-the-sahel

Linking early warning to early action in the Sahel

While aid agencies agree that early warning systems offer the chance to mitigate humanitarian crises, difficulty in funding pre-emptive measures and government sensitivities in admitting a looming disaster continue to hamper early action.

“Most [weather-related] disasters or crises can be predicted,” said Sarah Lumsdon, Oxfam’s interim regional humanitarian coordinator for West Africa. “In this day and age, there are enough indicators and data, and enough coverage by governments and NGOs to know when things are looking bad or likely will be bad. And so we should be able to intervene to stop it.”

This is particularly true when it comes to food insecurity in Africa’s Sahel region, where drought and serious food shortages left some 18 million people facing hunger in 2012.

“Food crises can often be predicted 6-9 months in advance,” said Rob Bailey, a senior research fellow at Chatham House and lead author of an April report on the link between early warning and early action.

He said that by monitoring indicators such as grain prices, cereal stocks, crop harvests, weather predictions and household food security data, aid agencies and governments can predict a coming food crisis with a fairly high degree of confidence.

Aid group Action Against Hunger (ACF) says it has had success in using satellites to monitor pasture and to map biomass production and vegetation levels as well as the scope of drought in order to predict which areas might need the most assistance.

“We’ve used this [method] in the last two crises, in 2010 and 2012, and it’s proved to be a good indicator of food production across the region,” said Alvaro Pascual, ACF’s Sahel desk officer.

Funding challenge

However, one of the main challenges of responding to early warnings is funding.

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Developing agriculture from the sky (IFAD)

Read at :

http://ifad-un.blogspot.be/2013/03/developing-agriculture-from-sky.html

Developing agriculture from the sky

By Kelsea Brennan-Wessels, Editor, Earth Obervation, ESRIN

From 800 km high, Earth-observing satellites are assisting international developmentorganisations with their work in developing countries. Satellites enable objective observations of the status of remote rural areas consistently over space and time.

The Mekong Delta in Vietnam is one of the world’s richest agricultural regions and due to the amount of rice produced there it is often referred to as Vietnam’s ‘rice bowl’. The crop feeds the rest of the country and produces enough to make Vietnam one of the world’s top rice exporters.

But the local agriculture – and, as a consequence, the nation’s economy – is threatened by sea level rise and the subsequent influx of salt water.

In order to identify long-term changes in rice cultivated areas and evaluate the effect of salinity intrusion on these areas, satellite data are being used to create land use and land cover maps for statistical analysis.

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A spatial desertification indicator (Google / The Rangeland Journal)

Read at : Google Alerts – desertification

http://www.publish.csiro.au/nid/202/paper/RJ12021.htm

A spatial desertification indicator for Mediterranean arid rangelands: a case study in Algeria

by Slim Saïdi  and Gustave Gintzburger

Abstract

Sheep and goat production is the main and sometimes only agricultural activity available to populations living on rangelands in the arid regions around the Mediterranean. Desertification threatens large areas of Mediterranean arid rangelands but remains difficult to describe, quantify and accurately locate for management purposes. A methodology is described which estimates a Spatial Rain-Use Efficiency Index (SRUEI) and its potential use to evaluate rangeland condition at a large scale. It is based on an Aboveground Net Primary Production (AGNPP) map generated from field herbage mass measurements and a rainfall spatial distribution map derived from local elevation–rainfall gradients with the whole resulting from satellite imagery processing and GIS technology. The area of the case study was in the Nâama–Mecheria region located on the High Plateau south of Oran (Algeria). It covers ~215 000 ha, receiving ~200 mm year^–1 of winter and spring precipitation.

The Nâama–Mecheria SRUEI-derived map clearly shows the degradation gradient declining away from the settlements. The Mecheria AGNPP 2007 map and associated grazing rings indicate that the Mecheria cooperative flocks may ingest 48–57% (Range Use Factor) of the rangeland’s seasonal plant production, which is barely compatible with sustainable rangeland use. When adding the effect of fuel wood collection by local residents and rain-fed arable cropping, the Nâama–Mecheria region is undoubtedly heading towards a slow but certain desertification of its fragile arid rangelands unless correcting measures are implemented. The SRUEI and associated results are powerful tools that allow rangeland conditions to be mapped, and which can be employed in planning and pursuing sustainable management of rangelands in such arid areas.

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Remote sensing and GIS and desertification (Sciences Indexed Since 1998)

Read at :

http://scienceindex.com/stories/835562/Application_of_remote_sensing_and_GIS_in_the_study_of_environmental_sensitivity_to_desertification_a_case_study_in_Basrah_Province_southern_part_of_Iraq.html

Application of remote sensing and GIS in the study of environmental sensitivity to desertification: a case study in Basrah Province, southern part of Iraq

submitted by KolJax

This research utilizes the integrated remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS) in the southern part of Iraq (Basrah Province was taken as a case) to assess the environmentally sensitivity area to desertification. The thematic layers of soil, vegetation, climate, and extent of sand movement are the main data required for estimating the desertification sensitivity index.

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Remote Sensing Data Aid and Desertification (Google / SCOOP)

Read at : Google Alert – desertification

http://www.scoop.it/t/remote-sensing-news/p/2228070937/remote-sensing-data-aid-in-monitoring-global-desertification-satellite-image-news

Remote Sensing Data Aid in Monitoring Global Desertification | Satellite Image News

Remote sensing earth observation (EO) satellites provide significant contributions to desertification assessment and monitoring, particularly by providing the spatial information needed for regional-scale analysis of the relationships between climate change, land degradation and desertification processes.

Gobi desert is expanding at an alarming rate. The expansion is particularly rapid on the southern edge into China. Dust storms, which used to occur regularly in China, have seen a dramatic increase in occurrence in the past 20 years, mainly due to desertification, and causing further damage to China’s agriculture economy.

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Identifying desertification zones using optical remote sensing in Colombia (UN-SPIDER)

Read at :

http://www.un-spider.org/about-us/news/en/5897/2012-07-26t160200/regional-support-offices-igac-conducts-desertification

Regional Support Offices: IGAC conducts desertification analyses

The Colombian Agustin Codazzi Geographic Institute – IGAC and their Center of Research and Development of Geographic Information – CIAF, recently did a series of projects based on risk management. One of those was focused on identifying zones in the process of desertification using optical remote sensing in the Andean dry region of Villa de Leyva (Boyacá), Colombia. For this, the experts analyzed the values of the NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) from 60 rasters per month (from January 2006 to December 2010) obtained from a MODIS sensor (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer).

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Earth’s Changing Face (Science Daily)

Read at :

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120420092020.htm

NASA Image Gallery Highlights Earth’s Changing Face

ScienceDaily (Apr. 20, 2012) — In celebration of this year’s Earth Day on April 22, NASA’s Webby Award-winning Global Climate Change website, http://climate.nasa.gov , has unveiled a new version of its popular image gallery, “State of Flux.” The gallery, which can be found at http://climate.nasa.gov/sof , presents stunning images, mostly from space, of our ever-changing planet, chronicling changes taking place over time periods ranging from days to centuries.

Each image pair in the continuously updated gallery highlights before-and-after impacts of change, including the destruction wrought by extreme events such as wildfires and floods, the retreat of glaciers caused by climate change, and the expanding footprint of urban areas due to population growth.

The redesigned gallery, which currently features more than 160 comparison views, is now organized and sortable by categories, including ice, human impact, water, land cover and extreme events. A selection of some of the Global Climate Change website team’s favorite images is highlighted in a new “Top Picks” category.

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