Data

Sensitivity to desertification and drought in Europe

Data

Prod-ID: DAT-7-en

Created 26 Mar 2009 Published 26 Mar 2009 Last modified 24 Aug 2017

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This page was archived on 24 Aug 2017 with reason: A new version has been published (There is a new published version.)

Desertification is an advanced stage of land degradation where the soil has lost part of its capability to support human communities and ecosystems

Data and maps

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GIS data

Zipped GRID format, raster data

Kosovo data is not real values, just artifacts

Zipped GRID format, raster data (ZIP archive)
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Zipped tiff format, raster data

Zipped tiff format, raster data (ZIP archive)
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Methodology

Mapping sensitivity to desertification (DISMED), 2008

Mapping sensitivity to desertification (DISMED), 2008 (PDF document)
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Desertification assessment fact sheet, Adobe pdf-file

Desertification assessment fact sheet, Adobe pdf-file (PDF document)
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Metadata

Relation:: Parent data set: Indices of climate, soil and vegetation quality
Geographic accuracy:: 1000 meters
Scale of the data set:: 1:1000000
Rights:: EEA standard re-use policy: unless otherwise indicated, re-use of content on the EEA website for commercial or non-commercial purposes is permitted free of charge, provided that the source is acknowledged (https://www.eea.europa.eu/legal/copyright). Copyright holder: European Environment Agency (EEA).
Methodology:: The assessment uses a methodology developed in the DISMED project (Desertification Information System for the Mediterranean) for the assessment of sensitivities to desertification and drought covering countries in southern Europe and northern Africa. The DISMED classification has been slightly modified to provide more detail in the European part of the region. The geographical coverage has been extended to central and eastern Europe as new data were made available. The DISMED approach was derived from the MEDALUS methodology for Environmentally Sensitive Areas. Sensitivity to desertification and drought is defined by an index (SDI: Sensitivity to desertification index) obtained from the geometrical average of three indexes of the soil quality, climate and vegetation. The DISMED methodology only takes into account causal factors such as soil properties, climate and vegetation, while socio-economic indicators are not included as further work is still required to test and adapt methodologies implemented at regional or national level.
Coordinate reference system:: EPSG:3035
Owners:: European Environment Agency (EEA)
Processors:: The European Topic Centre on Land Use and Spatial Information

Additional information

A thorough assessment of desertification would require the analysis of several physical and socio-economical factors. Quantitative information on the causal factors is scarce and the use of models to assess the sensitivity to desertification and drought is the most common approach. The assessment presented here gives an overview of the sensitivity to desertification and drought in a vast European region comprising the northern Mediterranean and central-eastern Europe. Its main objective is to facilitate the identification of hot-spots at the regional level for early warnings.
Geographical coverage: the map covers European countries included in Annex IV (Northern Mediterranean) and Annex V (Central and Eastern Europe) to the UNCCD for which basic data are available. One or more basic data layers were not available for Cyprus, Malta, Turkey and Kosovo. Except for France, the entire national territory has been considered in the assessment even if not all is included in a relevant climatic

For references, please go to https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/data/sensitivity-to-desertification-and-drought-in-europe or scan the QR code.

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