Progression du desséchement dans les régions sénégalaises

Hubert, Henry

doi:10.3406/geo.1917.8560

Cited by 3 publications

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“…Again, limiting myself to the 20 th century, the first word I found in the published literature was 'dessication', used by Hubert (1917Hubert ( , 1920, Schwartz (1919), and Chudeau (1921). For a starter, one must realize that desertification is by far not the only word used in the literature to describe environmental degradation in arid regions.…”

Section: Getting Confusedmentioning

confidence: 99%

Defining desertification: A review

Verstraete

1986

Climatic Change

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The concept of desertification was introduced in the late forties to designate a number of ecological degradation processes in tropical Africa, in particular the progressive transformation of tropical forests in savannahs or even drier ecosystems. Since then, the word has received a number of other meanings, some of them contradictory, most of them ambiguous.This paper reviews the historical developments that lead to the introduction of the concept of desertification, summarizes some of the reasons why this issue is so controversial~ and suggests specific elements that should be incorporated in the definition of the concept. The point is made that each user of the concept should probably design a definition for his or her own use, depending on the goals, among other things.Even a short look at the literature will show that the term desertification has been accepted with mixed blessings from the various scientific (and other) communities, and that it has received a number of contradictory definitions and meanings (Verstraete, 1983;Glantz and Orlovski, 1983). It is therefore difficult to start talking about dcsertification without bias. The first section below will nevertheless attempt such an approach. In the second section, I will describe briefly how this term came about and how its meaning evolved in time. In the third section, I will present sample published definitions as different and contradictory as possible, to show the extent of the confusion, and in the fourth section I will try to rationalize these contradictions, with a view to identify the basic elements that should be included in a definition for it to be both unambiguous and useful.

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Section: Getting Confusedmentioning

confidence: 99%