Desertification and Risk Analysis Using Highand Medium Resolution Satellite Data

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Desertification and Risk Analysis

Resolution Satellite DataUsing High and Medium

Alberto Marini

Mohamed TalbiInstitut des Regions Arides

Medenine, Tunisia

Training Workshop on Mapping Desertification

IRA Remote Sensing Laboratory

University of CagliariItaly

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Results of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop onDesertification and Risk Analysis Using High and Medium Satellite DataTozeur, Tunisia9–19 December 2006

Library of Congress Control Number: 2008938014

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ISBN 978-1-4020-8937 -4 (e-book)

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© Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2009

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 desertifi-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)

v

PREFACE

These pages are developed by experts and young researchers who have lived and worked inthe described areas. We thank the patronage of NATO Programme Security through Science -Advanced Study Institute in the person of Fausto Pedrazzini and we present special thanks tothe large number of people who helped us in different ways to complete this volume. We areparticularly grateful to Springer for their approval to the publication and we owe special words ofthanks to our families for the support during the assembling of all the papers.

Alberto Marini and Mohamed Talbi

1 General Aspects of Desertification ...................................................................1

1.1 Anthropic Actions and Desertification in Algeria ...............................................3 Mohamed Tahar Benazzouz and Lamia Boureboune

1.2 Amina Malaki, Abdelilah El Ghannouchi, and Mohamed El Wartiti

1.3 Changes in the Resources Management and their Environmental

Mohamed Talbi, Najet Ben-Mansour, Khaled Talbi, and Nabil Gasmi

1.4 Quality Management in Information Systems for Combating

1.5 Kevin White

1.6 Gaetano Pace, Gaia Vaglio Laurin, Lucio Pires Do Rosario, and Maurizio Sciortino

1.7 Giosuè Loj

2 Application of Remote Sensing Techniques to Desertification

2.1 Aeolian Morphogenesis and Strategy of Fight Against Desertification

L. Boureboune and M.T. Benazzouz

TABLE OF CONTENTS

2.2 Estimating Soil Moisture Using Optical and Radar Satellite Remote

Stefano Natali, Loreto Pellegrini, Gianluigi Rossi, Ludovica Giordano,

Consequences in a Saharan Arid Environment: The Case of the Jeffara Plain, the Nefzaoua Oases and the Sehib Area in Southern

Climate Change and the Need for Renewable Energy Sources.........................19

Tunisia................................................................................................................27

Mounir Sellami and Mohamed Talbi

Sensing Data.....................................................................................................105

Preface.......................................................................................................................... v

vii

Desertification and Dry Lands Management .....................................................47

Remote Sensing of Aeolian Dust Production and Distribution .........................59

The New Thematic Strategy for Protecting Soils in Europe..............................83

Mapping ............................................................................................................89

in Algeria (Hodna and Zibans Basin) ................................................................91

Space for the UNCCD and the DesertWatch Project ........................................71

Massimo Iannetta, Gabriele Schino, Alberto Marini, and Gasmi Nabil

Table of Contents

2.3 Monitoring Sensitive Areas to Desertification in Sardinia: The Contribute

Andrea Motroni, Simona Canu, Giuseppe Bianco, and Giosuè Loj

2.4

2.5 Data Bank of Territorial Spectral Signatures for Sardinia

Alberto Marini and Paolo Colandrea

2.6

Mohamed El Wartiti, Amina Malaki, Mohamed Zahraoui, Felice Di Gregorio, and Jo De Waele

2.7 Weicheng Wu

2.8 Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation of a Project to Combat

Boubaker Raddaoui

2.9 Remote Sensing Technology Applications for Desertification

Mohamed Osman Arnous, Mohamed Ahmed Sidi Cheikh, Ben Zaied Mongi,

2.10 Sand Dunes Evolution and Desertification in Southeastern

2.11 Thematic Mapping Using Quickbird Multispectral Imagery

Francesco G. Dessì and Abdoul Jelil Niang

2.12 Use of Remote Sensing and GIS for Monitoring Agro-Ecological System

Hanen Dhaou, A. Belghith, and Mohamed Ouessar

Contribution of SAR Interferometry (from ERS1/2) in the Study of Aeolian

Geosites and Touristic Development of the Northwestern Tabular Middle

and Francesco Muntoni Riadh Aliout, Rabah Hadj-Ali, Yassine Garouni, Saleh Sid, Alberto Marini,

Amina Malaki, Mohamed El Wartiti, and Abdelilah El Ghannouchi

of the Regional Agrometeorological Service...................................................117

Transport Processes: The Cases of Niger, Mauritania and Morocco ..............129

and North Africa ..............................................................................................137

Atlas of Morocco..............................................................................................143

Monitoring Land Degradation in Drylands by Remote Sensing .....................157

Mapping: A Case Study, Oudia Area, Tunisia.................................................183

Desertification in Drylands: Case Study in Centre Western Tunisia...............171

Morocco: A New Approach to an Old Problem ..............................................199

in Oung El-Jemel Area, Tozeur (SW Tunisia).................................................207

in Tunisian Arid Regions: Study Case of Menzel Habib.................................213

viii

Catherine Bodart, Jean Gassani, Marc Salmon, and André Ozer

Table of Contents

Livio Rossi

2.14 Vulnerability of the Lower Sahara and the Human Impact on the Increase

Lakhdar Merabet

Mohamed Talbi, Alberto Marini, and Nabil Gasmi

2.15 General Presentation of the Al Jerid Area in Tozeur, Tunisia, as Test Area

2.13 Very High Resolution Satellites.......................................................................217

of Desertification: The Case of Oued Righ and Oued Souf Region................229

in the Arid Landscapes for the Fight Against Desertification .........................241

ix

Alberto Marini and Mohamed Talbi 2.16 Mapping Desertification, a High Education Course in Remote Sensing .........261

3 Tozeur Declaration ........................................................................................271