Title: Vulnerability mapping of agriculture to sand and dust storms
Abstract:
Sand and Dust Storms (SDS), as a global environmental crisis, occur under a wide range of circumstances in agricultural lands. This phenomenon arises from the interaction of natural drivers, such as climate change and drought, and anthropogenic factors, such as mismanagement of water, soil, and plant resources. SDS vulnerability can be implemented in four main domains of an area (from local to global scale) including human health, socio-economic, environment, and agro-ecology. In this study, the proposed methodology for SDS vulnerability assessment is for agriculture that is carried out using three components of sensitivity, capacity, and exposure. Assessment/mapping of these components is performed using measurable indicators, each of them represents an environmental variable. Accordingly, indicators of Air temperature, Soil moisture, Soil organic carbon (SOC), Precipitation, Palmer drought severity index (PDSI), Livestock grazing index (LGI), Land degradability index (LDI), Fractional vegetation cover (FVC), Rural health center (RHC), Rural health house (RHH), Literacy rate (LR), and Active population (15>age>65) are developed to address the concept of SDS vulnerability in agriculture. The proposed methodology is mainly focused on the long-term circumstances which cause vulnerability of agriculture to SDS. Therefore, the proposed SDS vulnerability methodology is developed in a comprehensive manner that covers the spatial-temporal pattern of vegetation, soil erosion status, hydroclimate characteristics, and human roles.
Biography:
Ali Darvishi Boloorani has been an Associate Professor in the Department of Remote Sensing and GIS, Faculty of Geography, the University of Tehran since 2009. He was a Senior Researcher (2019-2021) in the Key Laboratory of Digital Land and Resources, East China University of Technology, Nanchang, Jiangxi, China. Ali completed his Ph.D. in environmental geoinformatics at the University of Gottingen, Germany in 2008. Ali is currently working with the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) on a project named “Catalysing investments and actions to enhance resilience against Sand and Dust Storms (SDS) in agriculture. He has published more than 60 peer-reviewed journal articles and conference papers and book chapters.
