Desertification indicators

✍ Scribed by J. A. Mabbutt

• Book ID: 104638664
• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1986
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 551 KB
• Volume: 9
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0165-0009
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00140530

✦ Synopsis

Lack of agreement on the choice and application of indicators has been a major handicap in attempts to assess the status and trends of desertification. Desertification is a complex process, and possible indicators have been identified among physical, biological, human, and socio-economic phenomena. Indicators have been classed according to scale of monitoring, types of variable and land-use applications. Indirect indicators have the potential advantage of integrative monitoring of a range of processes over broad areas, but with the risk of responding to processes other than desertification. This is one reason why human and socio-economic indicators have been little used; a recent global assessment relied mainly on physical and biological indicators.