Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-669899f699-b58lm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-05-01T20:22:48.867Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

15 - Desertification and land degradation in arid and semi-arid regions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2011

By
Yang Xiaoping
Edited by
Irasema Alcántara-Ayala  and
Andrew S. Goudie
Irasema Alcántara-Ayala
Affiliation:
Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico City
Andrew S. Goudie
Affiliation:
St Cross College, Oxford
Get access

Summary

Introduction

Land degradation occurring in particular climate zones, i.e. arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid areas, is defined as desertification by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD, 1999). As desertification is widely viewed as one of the leading environmental issues facing the world today, many individual researchers and international organizations have tried to clarify and to update the definition of this term. Among various conceptions, the ones from the United Nations Authority have been most often used. The earlier definition adopted by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP, 1990) was practically the same as the one given by Conacher and Conacher (2000), limiting the cause of degradation to human activities. At the UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, both climatic variations and human activities were accepted as factors triggering desertification (Williams and Balling, 1995).

Independent of the exact causes of desertification in each individual case, desertification is a distinct geomorphological hazard due to its impacts on landforms and on geomorphological processes. Among various geomorphological hazards, desertification has been given probably the greatest attention by the United Nations. In 1994 the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) was adopted. In 1996 the agreement legally entered into force following its 50th ratification. The year 2006, the 10th anniversary since the UNCCD came into effect, was declared by the United Nations as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification.

Type
Chapter
Information
Geomorphological Hazards and Disaster Prevention , pp. 189 - 198
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Barrow, C. (1991). Land Degradation: Development and Breakdown of Terrestrial Environments. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Beadnell, H. (1910). The sand dunes of the Libyan Desert. Geographical Journal, 35, 379–395.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boroffka, N., Oberhänsli, H., Sorrel, P.et al. (2006). Archaeology and climate: settlement and lake-level changes at the Aral Sea. Geoarchaeology: An International Journal, 21, 721–734.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brook, G., Marais, E., Srivastava, P. and Jordan, T. (2007). Timing of lake-level changes in Etosha Pan, Namibia, since the middle Holocene from OSL ages of relict shorelines in the Okondeka region. Quaternary International, 175, 29–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conacher, J. and Conacher, A. (2000). Policy responses to land degradation in Australia. In Conacher, A. (ed.), Land Degradation. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp. 363–385.Google Scholar
Conacher, A. and Gisladottir, G. (2006). UN year of deserts and desertification: policy implications. Quaternary Sciences (in Chinese), 26, 1030.
Dregne, H. (2002). Land degradation in the drylands. Arid Land Research and Management, 16, 99–132.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duan, Z., Xiao, H., Dong, Z., He, X. and Wang, G. (2001). Estimate of total CO2 output from desertified sandy land in China. Atmospheric Environment, 35, 5915–5921.Google Scholar
Elbelrhiti, H., Claudin, P. and Andreotti, B. (2005). Field evidence for surface-wave-induced instability of sand dunes. Nature, 437, 720–723.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Embabi, N. (2004). The Geomorphology of Egypt, Landforms and Evolution, vol. 1, The Nile Valley and the Western Desert. Cairo: The Egyptian Geographical Society.Google Scholar
Erdinger, L., Eckl, P., Ingel, F.et al. (2004). The Aral Sea disaster: human biomonitoring of Hg, As, HCB, DDE, and PCBs in children living in Aralsk and Akchi, Kazakhstan. International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health, 207, 541–547.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
,FAO/UNESCO (1971–1979). Carte des Sols du Monde. Paris: UNESCO.Google Scholar
Feng, Q., Cheng, G. and Masao, M. (2002). The carbon cycle of sandy lands in China and its global significance. Climatic Change, 48, 535–549.Google Scholar
Fryberger, S. (1979). Dune forms and wind regime. USGS Professional Paper, 1052, 137–169.Google Scholar
Goudie, A. (1983). Environmental Change, 2nd edition. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Goudie, A. (2002). Great Warm Deserts of the World: Landscapes and Evolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Goudie, A. (2008). Dust storms: recent developments. Journal of Environmental Management, 90, 89–94.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goudie, A. and Middleton, N. J. (2006). Desert Dust in the Global System. Berlin and Heidelberg: Springer.Google Scholar
He, D. and Shen, J. (1988). Impacts of moisture on the threshold wind velocity of sand movement (in Chinese). Journal of Desert Research, 8, 8–27.Google Scholar
Helldén, U. and Tottrup, C. (2008). Regional desertification: a global synthesis. Global and Planetary Change. doi: 10.1016/j.gloplacha.2008.10.006.CrossRef
Hou, R. (1973). The changes of the Maowusu Desert, from the perspective of the ruined cities along the Hongliu River (in Chinese). Cultural Relics, 1, 35–41.Google Scholar
Kayasseh, M. and Schenk, C. (1989). Reclamation of saline soils using calcium sulphate from titanium industry. Ambio, 18, 124–127.Google Scholar
Lancaster, N. (1995). Geomorphology of Desert Dunes. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mainguet, M. (1999). Aridity: Droughts and Human Development. Berlin and Heidelberg: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mensching, H. (1990). Desertifikation: ein weltweites Problem der ökologischen Verwüstung in den Trockengebieten der Erde. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.Google Scholar
O'Hara, S., Wiggs, G., Mamedov, B., Davidson, G. and Hubbard, R. (2000). Exposure to airborne dust contaminated with pesticide in the Aral Sea region. Lancet, 355, 627–628.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pradeep, S., Brook, G. and Marais, E. (2004). A record of fluvial aggradation in the northern Namib Desert during the Late Quaternary. Zeitschrift für Geomorphologie, Suppl.-Vol., 133, 1–18.Google Scholar
Rhoades, J. D. (1990). Soil salinity: causes and controls. In Goudie, A. S. (ed.), Techniques for Desert Reclamation. Chichester: Wiley, pp. 109–134.Google Scholar
Riksen, M. and Graaff, J. (2001). On-site and off-site effects of wind erosion on European light soils. Land Degradation and Development, 12, 1–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruddiman, W. (2001). Earth's Climate: Past and Future. New York: Freeman.Google Scholar
Safriel, U. (2007). The assessment of global trends in land degradation. In Savakumar, M. and Ndiangui, N. (eds.), Climate and Land Degradation. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer, pp. 1–38.Google Scholar
Sarnthein, M. (1978). Sand deserts during glacial maximum and climatic optimum. Nature, 272, 43–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seuffert, O. (2001). Landschafts(zer)störung: Ursachen, Prozesse, Produkte, Definition und Perspektiven. Geo-Öko, 22, 91–102.Google Scholar
Shi, P., Yan, P., Yuan, Y. and Nearing, M. (2004). Wind erosion research in China: past, present and future. Progress in Physical Geography, 28, 366–386.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
,Sino-French Expedition Team (1997). Outlines of the results from the archaeological excavations in the reaches of the Keriya River, Xinjiang (in Chinese). Xinjiang Antiquities, 48, 1–12.Google Scholar
,State Forestry Administration (2005). Chinese Desertification and Desertification Bulletin. Beijing: State Forestry Administration.Google Scholar
,Study Group (1998). Study on Combating Desertification/Land Degradation in China. Beijing: China Environmental Science Press.Google Scholar
Thomas, D. and Middleton, N. (1994). Desertification: Exploding the Myth. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Thomas, D., Brook, G., Shaw, P.et al. (2003). Late Pleistocene wetting and drying in the NW Kalahari: an integrated study from the Tsodilo Hills, Botswana. Quaternary International, 104, 53–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, D., Knight, M. and Wiggs, G. (2005). Remobilization of southern African desert dune systems by twenty-first century global warming. Nature, 435, 1218–1221.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tooth, S. (2008). Arid geomorphology: recent progress from an Earth System Science perspective. Progress in Physical Geography, 32, 81–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
,UNCCD (1999). United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in those Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification, Particularly in Africa. Text with Annexes. Bonn: Secretariat of the Convention to Combat Desertification.Google Scholar
,UNEP (1990). Report of the Ad-hoc Consultative Meeting on the Assessment of Desertification. Nairobi: United Nations Environment Programme.Google Scholar
,UNEP and ISRIC (1990). World Map of the Status of Human Induced Soil Degradation. Wageningen: UNEP and ISRIC.Google Scholar
Unkel, I., Kadereit, K., Mächtle, B.et al. (2007). Dating methods and geomorphic evidence of palaeo-environmental changes at the eastern margin of the South Peruvian coastal desert (14°30′ S) before and during the Little Ice Age. Quaternary International, 175, 3–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watson, A. (1990). The control of blowing sand and mobile desert dunes. In Goudie, A. S. (ed.), Techniques for Desert Reclamation. Chichester: Wiley, pp. 35–85.Google Scholar
Wiggs, G., Thomas, D., Bullard, J. and Livingstone, I. (1995). Dune mobility and vegetation cover in the southwest Kalahari Desert. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 20, 515–529.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, M. and Balling, R. (1995). Interactions of Desertification and Climate. London: Edward Arnold.Google Scholar
Williams, M., Dunkerley, D., Deckker, P., Kershaw, P. and Chappell, J. (1998). Quaternary Environments, 2nd edition. London: Arnold.Google Scholar
Wilshire, H., Nakata, J. and Hallet, B. (1981). Field observations of the December (1977) wind storm, San Joaquin Valley, California. In Péwé, T. (ed.), Desert Dust: Origins, Characteristics and Effects on Man. Boulder: Geological Society of America, pp. 233–251.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
,WMO (World Meterorological Organization) (1983). Meterorological Aspects of Certain Processes Affecting Soil Degradation. Geneva: WMO.Google Scholar
Xu, B., Liu, X. and Zhao, X. (1993). Soil wind erosion in farmland and its control in the middle part of Naiman Banner, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (in Chinese). Bulletin of Soil and Water Conservation, 7, 75–80.Google Scholar
Yang, X. (1991). Geomorphologische Untersuchungen in Trockenräumen NW-Chinas unter besonderer Berücksichtigung von Badanjilin und Takelamagan. Göttinger Geographische Abhandlungen, 96, 1–124.Google Scholar
Yang, X. and Williams, M. (2003). The ion chemistry of lakes and late Holocene desiccation in the Badain Jaran Desert, Inner Mongolia, China. Catena, 51, 45–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yang, X., Rost, K., Lehmkuhl, F., Zhu, Z. and Dodson, J. (2004). The evolution of dry lands in northern China and in the Republic of Mongolia since the Last Glacial Maximum. Quaternary International, 118/119, 69–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yang, X., Dong, J. and White, P. (2006a). The key role of water resources management in ecological restoration in western China. Geographical Research (Journal of the Institute of Australian Geographers), 44, 146–154.Google Scholar
Yang, X., Liu, Z., Zhang, F., White, P. and Wang, X. (2006b). Hydrological changes and land degradation in the southern and eastern Tarim Basin, Xinjiang, China. Land Degradation and Development, 17, 381–392.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yang, X., Preusser, F. and Radtke, U. (2006c). Late Quaternary environmental changes in the Taklamakan Desert, western China, inferred from OSL-dated lacustrine and aeolian deposits. Quaternary Science Reviews, 25, 923–932.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yang, X., Ding, Z., Fan, X., Zhou, Z. and Ma, N. (2007). Processes and mechanisms of desertification in northern China during the last 30 years, with a special reference to the Hunshandake Sandy Land, eastern Inner Mongolia. Catena, 71, 2–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yang, X., Zhu, B., Wang, X., et al. (2008). Late Quaternary environmental changes and organic carbon density in the Hunshandake Sandy Land, eastern Inner Mongolia, China. Global and Planetary Change, 61, 70–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zavialov, P. (2005). Physical Oceanography of the Dying Aral Sea. Chichester: Springer/Praxis.Google Scholar
Zhao, Y., Jin, Z., Shi, P. and Hao, Y. (1989). Studies on Soil Erosion in Inner Mongolia (in Chinese). Beijing: Science Press.Google Scholar
Zhu, Z. and Chen, G. (1994). Sandy Desertification in China (in Chinese). Beijing: Science Press.Google Scholar
Zhu, Z., Wu, Z., Liu, S. and Di, X. (1980). An Outline of Chinese Deserts (in Chinese). Beijing: Science Press.Google Scholar
Zhu, Z., Chen, Z., Wu, Z.et al. (1981). Study on the Geomorphology of Wind-drift Sands in the Taklamakan Desert (in Chinese). Beijing: Science Press.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×