Desertification and desertification indicators classification (DPSIR)

Abstract

Desertification is one of the main driver of global famine and intensive urbanization. Fertile soil that passes the process of desertification cannot be reversed and it is lost for many decades. Basically the process is the degradation of soil. Soil degradation is not necessarily continuous. It may take place over a relatively short period between two states of ecological equilibrium. The processes of soil degradation are mainly water erosion, wind erosion, salinization and/or sodification, chemical degradation, physical degradation, and biological degradation. The concept of DPSIR (driver, state, impact, and response) has been adopted by the European Environment Agency and other organizations for soil strategy. For example, in this model: State indicators are soil water availability, land suitability, erosion vulnerability, etc.; pressure indicators are human and environmental harmful effects, such as deforestation, ground water overexploitation, forest fire, etc.; response indicators are represented by corrective measures, such as sustainable farming, ground water recharge, terracing, storage of runoff water, etc.; driving forces indicators represent human activities that impact land degradation, such as intensified agriculture, overgrazing, uncontrolled tourism, and population increase; and finally impact indicators of the desertification process, e.g., loss of plant productivity and farm income, flooding of low land, dam sedimentation, etc.