Design and Development of Early Warning System for Desertification and Land Degradation

Early warning systems are key components of strategies to reduce risk. This research, by adopting a systematic approach in the management of desertification risk and including previously developed models and systems, offers an integrated efficient structure in terms of early warning for the risk of desertification as a pilot system for semi-arid areas of west Golestan Province, Iran. During recent years, desertification has taken place in the province in different ways. The offered system is an expert domain, which according to security levels and access to data could be utilized by organizations, experts, users, and senior executives. In the architecture of the system, data processing, decision-making control panels, and early warning systems are also adaptable to the national scale. The entries in the system include vector, raster, etc; processing sector is comprised of management and process sections. In the system’s output, a variety of tools for the assessment of desertification risk severity, alarming based on various scenarios, and reporting are available. The output data structure is often vector and image which are evaluated and verified in the system. Lack of a long-term network monitoring, data transmission, interaction between stakeholders and decision makers, and communication infrastructure are considered obstacles facing the development of integrated early warning systems for desertification in the study area. This system as a unique and fundamental tool in the context of desertification assessment could provide unprecedented assistance to the managers.