Table Of ContentDesertification and Risk Analysis Using High
and Medium Resolution Satellite Data
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Series C:Environmental Security
Desertification and Risk Analysis
Using High and Medium
Resolution Satellite Data
Training Workshop on Mapping Desertification
edited by
Alberto Marini
University of Cagliari
Italy
and
Mohamed Talbi
Institut des Regions Arides
IRA Remote Sensing Laboratory
Medenine, Tunisia
Published in cooperation with NATO Public Diplomacy Division
Results of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on
Desertification and Risk Analysis Using High and Medium Satellite Data
Tozeur, Tunisia
9–19 December 2006
Library of Congress Control Number: 2008938014
ISBN 978-1-4020-8936-7 (PB)
ISBN 978-1-4020-8935-0 (HB)
ISBN 978-1-4020-8937 -4 (e-book)
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PREFACE
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
These pages are developed by experts and young researchers who have lived and worked in
the 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 to
the large number of people who helped us in different ways to complete this volume. We are
particularly grateful to Springer for their approval to the publication and we owe special words of
thanks to our families for the support during the assembling of all the papers.
Alberto Marini and Mohamed Talbi
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface..........................................................................................................................v
1 General Aspects of Desertification...................................................................1
1.1 Anthropic Actions and Desertification in Algeria...............................................3
Mohamed Tahar Benazzouz and Lamia Boureboune
1.2 Climate Change and the Need for Renewable Energy Sources.........................19
Amina Malaki, Abdelilah El Ghannouchi, and Mohamed El Wartiti
1.3 Changes in the Resources Management and their Environmental
Consequences in a Saharan Arid Environment: The Case of the
Jeffara Plain, the Nefzaoua Oases and the Sehib Area in Southern
Tunisia................................................................................................................27
Mohamed Talbi, Najet Ben-Mansour, Khaled Talbi, and Nabil Gasmi
1.4 Quality Management in Information Systems for Combating
Desertification and Dry Lands Management.....................................................47
Mounir Sellami and Mohamed Talbi
1.5 Remote Sensing of Aeolian Dust Production and Distribution.........................59
Kevin White
1.6 Space for the UNCCD and the DesertWatch Project........................................71
Gaetano Pace, Gaia Vaglio Laurin, Lucio Pires Do Rosario,
and Maurizio Sciortino
1.7 The New Thematic Strategy for Protecting Soils in Europe..............................83
Giosuè Loj
2 Application of Remote Sensing Techniques to Desertification
Mapping............................................................................................................89
2.1 Aeolian Morphogenesis and Strategy of Fight Against Desertification
in Algeria (Hodna and Zibans Basin)................................................................91
L. Boureboune and M.T. Benazzouz
2.2 Estimating Soil Moisture Using Optical and Radar Satellite Remote
Sensing Data.....................................................................................................105
Stefano Natali, Loreto Pellegrini, Gianluigi Rossi, Ludovica Giordano,
Massimo Iannetta, Gabriele Schino, Alberto Marini, and Gasmi Nabil
vii
viii Table of Contents
2.3 Monitoring Sensitive Areas to Desertification in Sardinia: The Contribute
of the Regional Agrometeorological Service...................................................117
Andrea Motroni, Simona Canu, Giuseppe Bianco, and Giosuè Loj
2.4 Contribution of SAR Interferometry (from ERS1/2) in the Study of Aeolian
Transport Processes: The Cases of Niger, Mauritania and Morocco..............129
Catherine Bodart, Jean Gassani, Marc Salmon, and André Ozer
2.5 Data Bank of Territorial Spectral Signatures for Sardinia
and North Africa..............................................................................................137
Alberto Marini and Paolo Colandrea
2.6 Geosites and Touristic Development of the Northwestern Tabular Middle
Atlas of Morocco..............................................................................................143
Mohamed El Wartiti, Amina Malaki, Mohamed Zahraoui,
Felice Di Gregorio, and Jo De Waele
2.7 Monitoring Land Degradation in Drylands by Remote Sensing.....................157
Weicheng Wu
2.8 Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation of a Project to Combat
Desertification in Drylands: Case Study in Centre Western Tunisia...............171
Boubaker Raddaoui
2.9 Remote Sensing Technology Applications for Desertification
Mapping: A Case Study, Oudia Area, Tunisia.................................................183
Mohamed Osman Arnous, Mohamed Ahmed Sidi Cheikh, Ben Zaied Mongi,
Riadh Aliout, Rabah Hadj-Ali, Yassine Garouni, Saleh Sid, Alberto Marini,
and Francesco Muntoni
2.10 Sand Dunes Evolution and Desertification in Southeastern
Morocco: A New Approach to an Old Problem..............................................199
Amina Malaki, Mohamed El Wartiti, and Abdelilah El Ghannouchi
2.11 Thematic Mapping Using Quickbird Multispectral Imagery
in Oung El-Jemel Area, Tozeur (SW Tunisia).................................................207
Francesco G. Dessì and Abdoul Jelil Niang
2.12 Use of Remote Sensing and GIS for Monitoring Agro-Ecological System
in Tunisian Arid Regions: Study Case of Menzel Habib.................................213
Hanen Dhaou, A. Belghith, and Mohamed Ouessar
Table of Contents ix
2.13 Very High Resolution Satellites.......................................................................217
Livio Rossi
2.14 Vulnerability of the Lower Sahara and the Human Impact on the Increase
of Desertification: The Case of Oued Righ and Oued Souf Region................229
Lakhdar Merabet
2.15 General Presentation of the Al Jerid Area in Tozeur, Tunisia, as Test Area
in the Arid Landscapes for the Fight Against Desertification.........................241
Mohamed Talbi, Alberto Marini, and Nabil Gasmi
2.16 Mapping Desertification, a High Education Course in Remote Sensing.........261
Alberto Marini and Mohamed Talbi
3 Tozeur Declaration........................................................................................271
