Land degradation in dry and sub-humid lands

Monitoring of land degradation (e.g. soil erosion, overgrazing, habitat conversion) is a key element for meeting the Biodiversity 2010 target of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD).

GeoVille has developed for the UNCBD a methodology to identify areas of potential land degradation. The approach is based on a spatial and thematic harmonisation of the IGBP 1992/93, GLC2000 and Globcover2005 data.

Hotspots are being monitored with higher resolution satellite data such as SPOT and have yielded in Mexico an overall accuracy of 80 % against data obtained from national sources.

Differences are flagged as potential land cover changes. These potential change areas are further analysed using long-term vegetation and leaf area indices to confirm changes in vegetation vigour. In dry areas land degradation is expressed as “change to barren land”, indicating a change from a higher form of land use (e.g. agriculture, forestry) to unused, barren land.

Copyright ©: ESA, INEGI, UNCBD, GeoVille