Assessment of Land Cover and Land Use in Central and West Asia and North Africa. Part 2: Hot Spots of Land Cover Change and Drought Vulnerability

Abstract

This report is the second and final volume of a regional assessment of land use and land cover in the CWANA (Central and West Asia and North Africa) region using remote sensing techniques and low-resolution satellite imagery. At the same time, it is an outcome of the 1998-2002 collaboration between ICARDA, and the Center for Earth Observations of Yale University in 'Remote Sensing for Natural Resource Management and Environmental Assessment'. undertaken with the financial support of the USAID Linkage Fund to the CGIAR. One of the major challenges in desertification research is distinguishing processes. related to aridity and natural climatic fluctuations. from human-induced negative trends. Land use and cover change. monitored over a substantive period of time and linked to secondary data. is the key to understanding which dry land areas are subject to degradation as a result of either human-induced processes or of climatic fluctuations. In this volume, an effort has been made to identify hot spots of land use/land cover changes and drought vulnerability in the CWANA region during the period 1982-2000. based on observations of low-resolution A YHRR satellite imagery. In addition. the authors interpret the results in terms of likely trends of land use intensification or 'extensification'. which themselves could be related to either changes in the policy environment. water resource availability, or indicative of climatic variability or change. The methodology described in this report contributes to the distinction of processes related to aridity and natural climatic fluctuations. from human-induced change trends. Moreover. the study underscores the ability of a 'hot spots' approach. using regional-scale remote sensing. In detecting macro-scale patterns of change. with considerable savings in time and financial resources.