What is desertification

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Soaring temperatures and improper disaster management have resulted in increased desertification rates across the globe. Coupled with droughts and a drop in agricultural productivity, the effects of desertification cannot be ignored. To curb such high rates of land degradation that many regions of the world are experiencing, effective risk management is needed. What is desertification and what are the main causes and solutions? — What is Desertification? Desertification has a few varying definitions, but mostly centres around semi-arid, sub-humid lands; in simple terms, it can be described as areas with low or variable rainfall. In addition, there is also the added element of human-induced land degradation owing to an expanding population and rampant deforestation. Land degradation is a systematic global issue. The scale of the problem has been questioned for decades, with estimates of degraded areas ranging between 15 to 60 million kilometres. Currently, an estimated 2 billion people live on drylands vulnerable to this phenomenon and scientists predict that the effects of desertification could lead to the displacement of around 50 million people by 2030 as a result of the soaring temperatures, large-scale deforestation, and ecosystem damage in many parts of the world. Alone in Asia, more than 2 billion people will be living in dryland conditions, while Africa sees at least 1 billion in the same (Figure 1). JOIN THE MOVEMENT TODAY Figure 1. Current and projected population...

This article is an installment of Future Explored, a weekly guide to world-changing technology. You can get stories like this one straight to your inbox every Thursday morning by subscribing here . Once-fertile land is becoming desert-like at an alarming rate, but across the globe, people are using a combination of new and ancient techniques to make degraded land bloom again. Desertification Most plants can’t grow without nutrient-rich soil, but the amount of farmable, or “arable,” land on this planet is decreasing at a rate of about 127 square miles per day, according to Much of this land is lost to Today, about “[Desertification and land degradation are] the greatest environmental challenge of our time,” Luc Gnacadja, executive secretary of UN’s Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), Desert greening We can reclaim land lost to desertification through a process called “desert greening,” and just like there isn’t one universal cause for desertification, there isn’t just one way to make dry, dusty land fertile again. “[Desertification and land degradation are] the greatest environmental challenge of our time.” Luc Gnacadja Tried and true China has pursued one of the longest-running programs of desert greening. In 1978, it launched the Its plan? Plant a lot of trees. Trees’ roots help trap valuable nutrients in soil, while their leaves create shade that helps prevent water evaporation. When dead leaves fall, they create cover that also helps keep moisture in the groun...

The observed distribution of different aridity levels, based on data for 1981-2010. Shading colour indicates regions defined as cold (grey), humid (green), dry subhumid (red), arid (dark orange), semiarid (pale orange) and hyperarid (pale yellow), Image: Map produced by the European Commission’s Joint Research Unit. Status of desertification in arid regions of the world. Image: Taken from Dregne, H. E. (1977) Desertification of arid lands, Economic Geography, Vol. 53(4): pp.322-331. © Clark University, reprinted by permission of Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group, www.tandfonline.com on behalf of Clark University. Global Assessment of Human-induced Soil Degradation (GLASOD). Shading indicates type of degradation: chemical (red), wind (yellow), physical (purple) and water (blue), with darker shading showing higher levels of degradation. Image: Source: Oldeman, L. R., Hakkeling, R. T. A. and Sombroek, W. G. (1991) World Map of the Status of Human-Induced Soil Degradation: An explanatory note(rev. ed.), UNEP and ISRIC, Wageningen. Map showing “convergence of evidence” of 14 land degradation risks from the third edition of the World Atlas of Desertification. Shading indicates the number of coincident risks. The areas with the fewest are shown in blue, which then increase through green, yellow, orange and the most in red. Image: Credit: Publication Office of the European Union

Desertification is a type of land degradation. It occurs when drylands become increasingly arid or desert-like. Desertification doesn’t necessarily mean that these water-scarce regions will transform into desert climates—only that their land’s natural productivity is lost and its surface and groundwater resources are diminished. (In order for a climatological desert to form, a location must evaporate all of the rain or snow it receives annually. Drylands evaporate no more than 65% of the precipitation they receive.) Of course, if desertification is severe and persistent, it can influence a region’s climate. Desertification is a significant global environmental issue, but it isn’t widely discussed. One possible reason why is because the word “desert” misrepresents the parts of the world and populations who are at risk. However, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), drylands cover about 46% of the Earth’s land area, and as much as 40% of the United States. In theory, this means that roughly half of the world, and half of the nation, is susceptible not only to desertification, but to its negative impacts: infertile soil, loss of vegetation, loss of wildlife, and, in short, loss of biodiversity — the variation of life on Earth. Martin Harvey / Getty Images Overgrazing can also lead to desertification. If animals continuously eat from the same patch of pastureland, the grasses and shrubs they consume aren't given enough time to continue growing. Bec...

The UN, which has been fighting desertification since 1994, defines it as the process of land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas as a result of various climatic and human factors. With climate change, these factors have only multiplied and it is now considered one of the world's major environmental problems. 6,000 years ago, the Sahara desert, now the largest desert in the world, was grassland covered with vegetation. The oscillations of the Earth's axis turned this area of the planet from an orchard to a sandy area where almost nothing can grow. In that case, we speak of a process of natural desertification which is in contrast to what is happening currently: large areas of the planet are being desertified at an accelerated rate as a result of human activity and DEFINITION OF DESERTIFICATION Desertification is the process by which vegetation in drylands i.e. arid and semi-arid lands, such as grasslands or shrublands, decreases and eventually disappears. The concept does not refer to the physical expansion of existing deserts, but to the various processes that threaten to turn currently non-desert ecosystems into deserts. Human activities, including deforestation and the overexploitation of aquifers, accelerate desertification. The effects of climate change, which is also driven by humans, and the destruction it causes in the form of extreme weather phenomena such as droughts, hurricanes, fires, etc. must be added to this. According to the UN, more than...

Recent Examples on the Web There is a tram system designed to reduce the need for cars (essential elsewhere in Qatar), and systems to conserve and reuse water – for example, planting native vegetation which will reverse desertification and reduce rain runoff, as well as watering plants with non-potable water. — Ulrike Lemmin-woolfrey, CNN, 24 Apr. 2023 Ferl agrees, calling these plant-growing experiments vital to advancing our understanding of cultivating crops in some of the harshest environments on Earth, like in the vicinity of heavy-metal-rich mining sites and in areas damaged by desertification. — Nicholas Gordon, Fortune, 8 June 2022 Chris Reij, a sustainable land management specialist at VU University Amsterdam, has studied reforestation efforts there, which were accomplished using simple technologies to combat desertification. — IEEE Spectrum, 6 June 2013 The country suffers from increasing dust storms, desertification, drought, salinization, all a result of climate change. — Hazlitt, 15 Sep. 2022 This area of Africa (and our path through the Middle East) is prone to desertification, the formation of deserts that were thought to be impenetrable to our ancestors — specifically the Saharan and Arabian. — Jesse Hawley, Discover Magazine, 21 Jan. 2021 Without them, momentum could be lost for the larger annual talks in Glasgow that officially opened Sunday and where countries from around the globe will be represented, including poor ones most vulnerable to rising seas, ...