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Folder Desertification, Drought and water scarcity

Water Scarcity
Water scarcity refers to the relative shortage of water in a water supply system that may lead to
restrictions on consumption. Scarcity is the extent to which demand exceeds the available resources
and can be caused either by drought or by human actions such as population growth, water misuse
and inequitable access to water. At the national level water scarcity is expressed as m3 per capita per
year. The greater the figure the greater is the scarcity. Most of the Mediterranean countries are facing
water scarcity.

Drought: Concept
Drought is a recurrent feature of climate that is characterized by temporary water shortages relative to normal supply, over an extended period of time – a season, a year, or several years. The term is
relative, since droughts differ in extent, duration, and intensity.

Desertification
Desertification means land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities.

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Document Can a UN convention effectively tackle desertification? Lindsay Stringer takes a look at the successes and limitations of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification as part of a new collection of articles in SciDev.Net's desert science dossier. The collection includes peer-reviewed policy briefs on key scientific and policy aspects of desertification and drylands such as human impact, access to water and biodiversity.
URL Desertification Information System (DESIS) DESIS (part of UNEP) is an information resource centre offering services encompassing agriculture, environmental degradation, food and natural resources within the context of desertification. Databases include:
(a) Activities on Wind Effect and Techniques to Wind Erosion Control (ACWIND).
(b) Desertification Library (DELI).
(c) Desertification Mailing List (MAIL).
(d) Desertification Thesaurus (KEYS).
(e) Directory of Organizations Dealing with Desertification Control and Dryland Development (DIOR).
(f) Network of Researchers and Institutions Dealing with Wind Erosion (REWIND).
(g) Query/Response Database (Q/R).
(h) UN Compendium on Dryland Development and Desertification Control Projects (PROCOM).
(i) UNEP Desertification Control Projects (DEPRO).
(j) world-wide Documentation on Wind Erosion Control (BIWIND).
All databases are stored on Compaq 386 computers using CDS/ISIS software. Information is available to all UN institutions as well as to external users in most cases.
Connection details: WWW: http://www.unep.org/unep/program/natres/land/dcpacdes.htm
Address: Information and Database Unit, UNEP-Desertification Control / Programme Activity Centre - UNEP DC/PAC, PO Box 30552, Nairobi, Kenya
Telephone: 245 2 623280/623836
Fax: 245 2 215615
Document Desertification in the Mediterranean Europe: A case in Greece

Desertification, as defined by the 1994 Convention of the United Nations, has affected large areas in the European Mediterranean and is threatening even larger territories. The vulnerability of the land to severe degradation that leads to desertification is attributed to several factors, including: large moisture deficits, climatic variability with frequent extreme events, steep terrain, geologic formations favouring desertification processes, out of phase climatic and vegetative periods, shallow soils and long periods of intensive human interference. Under the existing natural conditions lands have inertia and resilience, and resist extreme degradation. Desertification processes have been triggered and accelerated only by human action.

Process of desertification are either physical or chemical. The dominant physical process is soil erosion, which is activated by the destruction of the vegetative cover and affects marginal sloping lands. Soil salinization and natrification is the dominant chemical process. It is localized but affects valuable low lands and is the result of irrational irrigation practices.

In this paper, we present an example of range land desertification in the island of Lesvos in the North-eastern Aegean Sea. Three distinct climatic zones exist in the 167,000 hectares island: semiarid, subhumid and a transitional zone. Desertification has affected continuous territories in the semiarid zone and shows a fragmental pattern in the transitional zone. Sequential land use changes that lead to acute soil degradation were: destruction of the original oak forest, cultivation of rain-fed cereals
grazing, land abandonment, dominance of unpalatable thorny small plants (economic desertification), burning of thorny vegatation followed by overgrazing resulting in irreversible physical desertification. Interactions among climate, geology, physiography, soils, vegetation and animals are discussed.
URL Desertification in the Mediterranean Region. A Security Issue Proceedings of the NATO Mediterranean Dialogue Workshop, held in Valencia, Spain, 2-5 December 2003: This book focuses on two basic concepts : security and desertification in the Mediterranean Region and their linkages. It emerged from a single meeting of the "Workshop on Desertification in the Mediterranean Region. A Security Issue" held in Valencia, Spain on 2-5 December 2003, which was sponsored by the NATO Science Committee and NATO Committee on the Challenges of Modern Society.
Document Desertification risk assessment in southern Mediterranean areas The paper deals some important aspects concerning the study of desertification phenomenon that has significantly interested all European countries of the Mediterranean basin in the last decades. The territorial sensibility, qualitatively and/or quantitatively, of the risk related to the desertification processes has been valued as grade of susceptibility to the phenomenon in the study area, with respect to the hydraulic and hydrologic conditioning factors. The methodological approach followed is based on the classification of desertification indicators by means of a suitable conceptual model applied to the study area in Basilicata region. The classical desertification indexes have been evaluate referring
to the study area generating temporal informative map. To achieve such objective, the historical series of temperatures and rainfall of several gauge-stations have been analysed, and the first results show an increasing trend for the temperature in last years, according to the global scale. An increase of aridity and erosion index values is, also, outlined by the collected data with slight reductions at higher altitudes.
Document Drought Preparedness and Mitigation in Spain

Drought Preparedness and Mitigation in the Mediterranean: Analysis of the Organizations and Institutions. Prepared by A. GARRIDO, A. IGLESIAS, L. GARROTE, M. MONEO, A. GÓMEZ, F. FLORES, F. CUBILLO, J.C. IBÁÑEZ, M. FERNÁNDEZ, A. LAPEÑA.  in the framework of the MEDROPLAN project funded by the EC MEDA- Water (Euro-Mediterranean Regional Programme for Local Water Management of the European Commission)

Published in Options Méditerranéennnes, Série B, No. 51. in 2005 (ISBN 2-85352-320-9)
URL Drought in the Mediterranean
Pointer Earth observation of water cycle and applications in drought monitoring and prediction

Drought is one of the major environmental disasters in various parts of the world. Quantification of drought distribution in space and time is very difficult. Usually, the severity of droughts can be assessed with meteorological based indices (e.g., the standardised precipitation index), or satellite based indices (e.g.,vegetation indices). But the former fail to capture short-term variation and the latter is difficult to interpret for heterogeneous terrain.
This presentation proposes a methdology for quantitative drought monitoring with remote sensing data. Many important applications are possible (floods and droughts, water – climate feedbacks). Sensors such as SMOS provide exciting opportunities for earth observation of water cycle components and applications (e.g. drought monitoring and prediction).
Document Global deserts outlook This report presents a panorama of the environmental status of the world’s deserts: their location and extent, uniqueness and vulnerability, biodiversity and natural resources. The report provides a balanced picture of deserts as ecosystems which form a special part of the world’s natural and cultural heritage, and not simply as land that is the end result of the process of desertification. The Global Deserts Outlook is the first thematic assessment report in the Global Environment Outlook (GEO) series of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). It challenges readers to: consider the development potential of deserts and their conservation needs, explore what would be the most appropriate and sustainable livelihoods for people living in desert areas. Deserts do not have much water, but they do have other natural resources. The report argues that the knowledge and technology exist to manage these resources sustainably and that the challenge lies with determining and implementing appropriate actions for desirable long-term outcomes.
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