Remote sensing: a tool to monitor and assess desertification

Gérard Begni, Richard Escadafal, Delphine Fontannaz, Anne-Thérèse Hong-Nga Nguyen

Description

A whole range of satellites and sensors allows environmental monitoring, comparisons in time and space, and then a better understanding of ecosystems and planet functioning. This document explains how to pass from satellite data to useful information for combating desertification.
Begni Gérard, Escadafal Richard, Fontannaz Delphine and Hong-Nga Nguyen Anne-Thérèse, 2005. Remote sensing: a tool to monitor and assess desertification. Les dossiers thématiques du CSFD. Issue 2. 44 pp.

Sujets

• Désertification
• Early Warning and Response System
• Land Surface Model (LSM version 1.0)
• Monitoring and Measurement
• Cost
• Remote sensing application
• Vegetation
• Wind

Informations

• Publié par: csf-desertification
• Publié le: 24 octobre 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 2 753
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

CSSFFD
Les dossiers
thématiques
Issue 2
Remote sensing:Remote sensing:
a tool to monitor and assess
desertification
Comité Scientifique Français de la Désertification
French Scientific Committee on DeserLes dossiers thématiques du CSFD
Issue 2
Managing Editor CSFD
Marc Bied-Charreton
President of CSFD
Emeritus Professor of the University of Versailles
Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)
Researcher at C3ED-UMR IRD/UVSQ
(Centre of Economics and Ethics
for Environment and Development)
Authors
Gérard Begni
Director of Médias-France
The French Scientific Committee on Desertification [e-mail]
Richard Escadafal
Researcher at CESBIO The creation in 1997 of the French Scientific Committee on
(Centre for the Study of the Biosphere from Space)
Desertification (CSFD) has met two concerns of the Ministries in for IRD (Institut de recherche pour le développement)
charge of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. [e-mail]
Delphine Fontannaz First, CSFD materialises the will to involve the French scientific
Research Engineer at Médias-France community versed in desertification, land degradation, and
[e-mail]
development of arid, semi-arid and sub-humid areas, in generating Anne-Thérèse Hong-Nga Nguyen
Researrance knowledge as well as guiding and advising the policy makers and
[e-mail] actors associated in this combat. Its other aim is to strengthen the
position of this French community within the international context.
Contributors
In order to meet such expectations, CSFD is meant to be a driving
force regarding analysis and assessment, prediction and monitoring, Taoufiq Bennouna, Scientific and Technical
Adviser at OSS (Sahara and Sahel Observatory) information and promotion. Within French delegations, CSFD also
Antoine Cornet, Research Manager at IRD takes part in the various statutory meetings of the organs of the
Éric Delaitre, Researcher at the ROSELT/OSS (Long-Term
United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification: Ecological Monitoring Observatories Network / Sahara and
Conference of the Parties (CoP), Committee on Science and Sahel Observatory) Regional Coordination Unit of IRD
Frédéric Dumay, Design Engineer at the Laboratory Technology (CST), Committee for the Review of the Implementation
of Zonal Geography for the Development (LGZD) of the Convention. It also participates in meetings of European and
at the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne
international scope.Monique Mainguet, Member of the University Institute
of France (IUF) and Director of the Laboratory of Zonal
Geography for the Development (LGZD) CSFD includes a score of members and a President, who are appointed
Bernard Toutain, Researcher at Cirad Emvt (Department intuitu personae by the Minister for Research, and come from various
of Animal Production and Veterinary Medicine of the French
specialities of the main relevant institutions and universities. Agricultural Research Centre for International Development)
CSFD is managed and hosted by the Agropolis Association that
gathers, in the French town of Montpellier and Languedoc-Roussillon Editor
region, a large scientific community specialised in agriculture, food
Isabelle Amsallem (Agropolis Productions) and environment of tropical and Mediterranean countries.
The Committee acts as an independent advisory organ; Photography credits
it has neither decision-making powers nor legal status.
Its operating budget is financed by subsidies from the French
Ministries of Foreign Affairs and for Ecology and Sustainable
Danièle Cavanna (INDIGO picture library of IRD),
Development. CSFD members participate voluntarily to its activities,
June Cools (EOWorks), Jean-Marc D’Herbès and
as a contribution from the Ministry for Research Éric Delaitre (IRD/ROSELT/OSS Programme),
Frédéric Dumay (LGZD), Nadia Imbert-Vier (European
Space Agency), Josef Jansa and Klaus Scipal (Institute More about CSFD:
of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Vienna University
www.csf-desertification.orgof Technology), Lionel Jarlan (Météo-France),
Sandrine Jauffret (OSS), Édouard Lefloc’h andet
Christian Floret (CEFE – Centre for Evolutionary and
Functional Ecology), Marc Leroy (Médias-France),
Monique Mainguet (LGZD), Éric Mougin (CESBIO),
James P. Verdin and James Rowland (U.S. Geological
Survey), Seydou Traoré (AGRHYMET Regional Center),
Ann Tubbeckx (VITO), Nancy Walker (W.H. Freeman
and Company), Professor E. Zakarin (National Center for
Radio Electronics and Communications),
the POSTEL team (Pôle d'Observation des Surfaces
continentales par TELEdétection) as well as the authors Redaction, production and distribution of Les dossiers thématiques du CSFD are
of the pictures shown in this report. fully supported by this Committee through the backing of relevant
French Ministries. Les dossiers thématiques du CSFD may be freely downloaded
Design and production from the Committee website.
With special contribution from Olivier Piau (Agropolis Productions)om
the French Space Agency (Centre National d’Études Spatiales, CNES) the French Space Centre N’Études Spatiales, CNES)
Printed by Les Petites Affiches (Montpellier, France)
Translated by Catherine Tiné
Registration of copyright: on publication ISSN: 1772-6964
1,500 copies also available in French
© CSFD/Agropolis, December 2005Foreword
ankind is facing a world-wide concern, i.e.,Marc Bied-Charreton
desertification, which is both a natural phe-President of CSFD
nomenon and a process induced by humanEmeritus Professor of the University of Versailles
Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)M activities. Our planet and natural ecosys-
Researcher at C3ED-UMR IRD/UVSQ tems have never been so much degraded by our presen-
(Centre of Economics and Ethics for Environment and ce. Long considered as a local problem, desertification
Development) now belongs to global issues that affect us all, whether a
scientist, a decision-maker, a citizen from the South or
from the North. Within such a context, it is urgent to mobi-
lise the civil society and induce it to get involved. To start
with, people must be given the elements necessary to
understand better the desertification phenomenon and
its stakes. Scientific knowledge must be brought within
everyone’s reach, in a language understood by the great
majority. Within this scope, the French Scientific
Committee on Desertification has decided to launch a
new series entitled "Les dossiers thématiques du CSFD",
whose purpose is to provide appropriate scientific
information on desertification, its implications and sta-
kes. This series is intended for policy makers and their
advisers, whether from the North or from the South, but
also for the general public and for the scientific journa-
lists involved in development and environment. It also
aims at providing teachers, trainers and trainees with addi-
tional information on various fields. Lastly, it endeavours
to help spreading knowledge to the actors part of the com-
bat against desertification, land degradation, and pover-
ty, such as representatives of professional, non-
governmental, and international solidarity organisations.
A dozen reports are devoted to different themes such as
biodiversity, climate change, pastoralism, remote
sensing, etc; in order to take stock of the current kno-
wledge on these various subjects. The goal is also to set
out ideological and new concept debates, including
controversial issues; to expound widely used methodo-
logies and results derived from a number of projects; and
lastly, to supply operational and intellectual references,
addresses and useful websites.
These reports are to be broadly circulated, especially
within the countries most affected by desertification, by
e-mail (upon request), through our website, and in print.
Your feedback and suggestions will be much appreciated!
Redaction, production and distribution of "Les dossiers
thématiques du CSFD" are fully supported by this
Committee thanks to the backing of relevant French
Ministries. The opinions expressed in these reports are
endorsed by the Committee.
1Preamble
ince the dawn of time, the first hunters, and laterHubert Curien
the first shepherds and farmers, observed theirMember of the French
environment with their eyes and brain. They thusAcademy of SciencesSconceived systems of interpretation that enabled
them to know where to sow and plant, where to graze their
animals, and where to build their villages. Then several
thbig revolutions occurred, in particular during the 19
century: opticians invented telescopes and binoculars,
Niepce and Daguerre invented photography, and the
brilliant Nadar was the first ever to set up a photographic
camera in the gondola of a balloon. Aerial photography
was born.
Initially much used during World War I to locate the ene-
my's position, this technique expanded out of the milita-
ry field to become the essential tool of every cartographer
and town and country plan