1. Observation and Monitoring
of Land Degradation and Desertification
DNI WG
Michael Cherlet
Stefan Sommer

2. Climate
wetter – drier
hotter – cooler Land Use Land
windier - calmer change of purpose
intensify - abandon Management Biodiversity
NPK Soil quality
irrigate – drain
protect
carbon – Soil Condition
nutrients structure
biodiversity compaction
erosion
Changes in Land-Productivity

3. Observation and Monitoring
of Land Degradation and Desertification
10yr strategy:
strategic objectives measured through indicators
1st UNCCD CST Scientific Conference:
science based recommendations on information
needs, integrated analysis, monitoring networking
Initiatives as ELD
increasing specifications on
how to build in LDD data into
econometrics

4. Observation and Monitoring
of Land Degradation and Desertification
Trivial: facts and data on LDD required on regular basis
(state and trend, impacts)
Photos: various internet sources

5. Information needs for stakeholders and :
•The types of land degradation, their extent, severity and trend over time
•The risk of degradation in areas currently not affected
•The causes of land degradation – land-issue changes
•Impact these have on the people living in affected areas
•Impact these have offsite – up to global
•The action needed to counteract, and
•The economic data for valuation of action vs. inaction and total values
•Evidence of effects/returns on investments
always includes, or is based on, biophysical and societal information:
(Vogt et al, 2011 and Verstraete et al., 2011)
1st Scientif. Conf. led to proposal for establishing GDOS

6. Trivial: facts and data on LDD required on regular basis
Still lots of gaps: some biophysical more on socio economic
but much is collected and requirement probably ‘solvable‘; starting
linking into existing channels (OSS, LADA, GTOS, GSP ....)
Challenges:
• spatial continuity, global compatibility, harmonisation
• more than protocols, collection and colating is needed
• protocols for linking observed data into (econometric) modelling

7. Building on experiences and initiatives:
ACRIS (Australian Collaborative Rangeland Information System)
World Atlas of Desertification

8. ACRIS
G. Bastin et al., The Rangeland Journal, 2009

9. WAD

10. Forests and semi
natural vegetation
account for 50%
of all areas where
land-productivity
is increasing WAD
Agriculture
accounts for 35%
of the strongly
declining areas

11. Zucca et al., 2012

12. Goals of the WG
•To assess, monitor and improve our understanding of the present state
of, and trends in, dryland ecosystems and their services as a tool for
supporting actions leading to sustainable use and mitigating
desertification.
•To identify a suitable and focused set of harmonized variables and
protocols for use in remote sensing and ground observations.
•To support the goals of the UN Conventions on Desertification,
Biological Diversity and Climate Change and promote synergies
between them.
[as defined in the original TORs]

13. How to:
WG orientation meeting
planned mid June (18/6) at occasion of LDD Conference
Ghent, Belgium
WG Seminar on organizing and channeling
observations for collation and analysis
Planned autumn 2013, hosted at JRC, Ispra, Italy

14. THANK YOU!
Join Desertnet-International
http://www.desertnet-international.org/
Join the DOS WG
Michael.cherlet@jrc.ec.europa.eu