Traditional approach and remote sensing techniques in the development and implementation of desertification indicators

The monitoring of desertification in the affected areas requires adequate tools able to provide reliability, objectivity and replicability in processes assessment. Desertification indicators explains how processes evolve over time and vary in space and they can synthetically explain the state and trend of desertification. The development of projects focused on the application of indicators is an important step to design reliable and improved desertification monitoring systems. In this context, the present work illustrates some results achieved in the framework of European consolidated initiatives focused on development and implementation of desertification indicators based on both traditional approaches (DESERTLINKS) and remote sensing techniques (DESERTWATCH). The DESERTWATCH project created a user-tailored operational system to assess and monitor desertification and its trend over time on the base of Earth Observation technology. The project integrated consolidated procedures and algorithms into an operational automatized system, based on the integration of different environmental indicators and remote sensing data. The aim of DESERTLINKS project was to develop a desertification indicator system for Mediterranean Europe. All the indicators are now published in a specific web-based database.