Third Training Workshop on the use of Remote sensing techniques and GIS in monitoring, combating desertification
Syria, Science, 10/1/2001

The third training workshop on the use of remote sensing techniques and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in monitoring and combating desertification was held in Damascus on September 3 through October 1st at the Arab center for the Studies of Arid Zones and Dry Areas ACSAD and the Arab bank for Economic development in Africa.

In a statement to Arabic News, the director of the GIS laboratory in ACSAD Dr. Salim al-Hussein said that this training workshop had objectives to train 20 participants from African countries, south of the Sahara on using remote sensing and GIS techniques for combating desertification. The four- week training course was completed and all its set objectives were achieved. He continued that these objectives were to transfer technology for this innovative techniques to developing countries and linking output of satellite images to desertification phenomenon and finally modeling all input layers into GIS models.

Dr. al-Hussein said that this third workshop is sponsored by the BADEA which is also willing to sponsor the fourth advanced workshop on the same issue to be held in March 2002 for five weeks.

The training workshop followed a three- fold schemes. First; a theoretical approach with the definition of the desertification concept and the presentation of the principles of remote sensing and GIS. Second; the practical training aims to train the trainees in the methods used in any project designed to monitor the land degradation and desertification processes ( remote sensing and GIS). Third; a scientific field trip was organized to visiting several areas related to the subject of the training workshop in Syria and typical sites suffering from land degradation processes.

The third training course was also designed to transfer the experiences acquired by ACSAD as follows: The capabilities provided by the remote sensing techniques and GIS in the field of desetrification monitoring and combating; the use of digital processing of satellite images and the preparations of the different thematic maps and; the use of multi- temporal satellite images to monitor changes on land and vegetation cover.

Furthermore, field training was provided in the field of practices used to rehabilitate degraded lands in arid and semi arid- areas, and participants will be acquainted with the latest developments in the field of desertification monitoring and combating.

Since desertification is a wide - spread and severe threat in all Arab countries, it becomes vital to find methodologies for monitoring and modeling landscape change. In this regard, a project for monitoring and combating desertification in the Syrian steppe was launched by ACSAD in 1993 jointly with the Syrian Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform, the General Organization of Remote Sensing ( GORS), the German Agency for Technical Co-operation ( GTZ) and the General Federation of peasants in Syria. The Bishri mountain, situated to the eastern part of Syria, was selected as a pilot area due to its exceptional fragile ecological system. The purpose was to evaluate the possibilities and limitations of the use of remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems techniques to detect and quantify the desertification processes to assist the local authorities in managing the steppe natural resources.

This very project has achieved satisfactory results and has involved many Arab states through the organization of training workshops, workshop and fields visit with emphasis on the applicability of modern techniques such as remote sensing and GIS, also the results of this project is now applied in a pilot area in Jordan steppe. ACSAD is conducting a project financed by ROWA/ UNEP ( Regional Office for West Asia / United nations Environmental Program) to provide technical support in evaluating and mapping land degradation in republic of Yemen using innovative techniques like remote sensing and GIS assisted by intensive field work.

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