Land degradation trend assessment over Iberia during 1982-2012

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Land degradation is recognized as an important environmental and social problem in arid and

A High Resolution Dataset of Drought Indices for Spain

“…The developed dataset will also be widely useful for the assessment of land degradation. Although a number of studies have addressed land degradation in Spain [50][51][52], and the connection between land degradation and drought variability [53], they have all been based on low resolution data. The current drought index dataset has been created at a very high spatial resolution (1.1 km), which matches with current vegetation products available from earth observation satellites including MODIS and NOAA-AVHRR, and this will facilitate spatial and temporal assessment of the climate drivers of land degradation in Spain, and improvement of the surveillance systems to prevent land degradation [54].…”

Modernization of new irrigated lands in a scenario of increasing water scarcity: from large reservoirs to small ponds

“…Vicente-Serrano (2013) identified several regions in Spain showing an increase in the severity of droughts (particularly Southwestern Spain, Catalonia and the Central Ebro basin) (see also Coll et al, 2016;Gouveia et al, 2016). An increase in the duration of dry spells in the Central Ebro Valley was detected by López-Moreno et al (2010) in winter, spring and summer, and González-Hidalgo et al (2011) recorded a large decline in the late winter and early spring precipitation (February-March).…”

“…Such trends have been accompanied by an increase in the mean maximum temperature during the last few decades, including also an increase in the frequency and magnitude of warm nights, warm days and tropical nights for the period 1960(El Kenawy et al, 2011. The consequence in the landscape of the rainfed areas of the Central Ebro basin has been a trend toward decreased vegetation cover, behaving as an early warning of landscape degradation in semi-arid Mediterranean areas (Vicente-Serrano et al, 2012;Gouveia et al, 2016;Vicente-Serrano, 2016). Milano et al (2013) forecast a temperature increase of 1.5-3ºC and a precipitation decrease of 15-20% for the 2050 horizon in the Ebro Valley.…”

The Potential of Permanent Gullies in Europe as Geomorphosites

“…The potential of Spanish badlands as geomorphosites is very high, due to a combination of various factors (Gouveia et al 2016). Also, scientific publications and divulgation about these gullies are abundant.…”

“…Such channels are relatively narrow and deep (up to 25-30 m) and difficult to cross, to ascend or, in cropland, to erase by conventional tillage equipment Goudie 2004;Neboit 2010;Vanmaercke et al 2016). Badlands are deeply and densely dissected erosional landscapes (with many permanent gullies), formed in soft rock terrain, commonly but not exclusively in semi-arid regions (Torri et al 2000;Goudie 2004).…”