ORBi: Ozer Pierre - Desertification in the Sahel: climatic or human driven causes?

Reference : Desertification in the Sahel: climatic or human driven causes?


	Document type :	Scientific congresses and symposiums : Unpublished conference
	Discipline(s) :	Physical, chemical, mathematical & earth Sciences : Multidisciplinary, general & others Physical, chemical, mathematical & earth Sciences : Earth sciences & physical geography
	To cite this reference:	http://hdl.handle.net/2268/16050

Title :	Desertification in the Sahel: climatic or human driven causes?
Language :	English
Alternative title :	[fr] Désertification au Sahel: crise climatique ou anthropique?
Author, co-author :	Ozer, Pierre [Université de Liège - ULg > Département des sciences et gestion de l'environnement > Département des sciences et gestion de l'environnement >]
	Ozer, André [Université de Liège - ULg > Département de géographie > Géomorphologie et télédétection >]
Publication date :	7-Jul-2009
Page number :	53
On invitation :	No
Audience :	International
Event name :	7th International Conference on Geomorphology
Event date :	6-11 July 2009
Event organizer :	International Association of Geomorphologists (IAG)
Event place (city) :	Melbourne
Event country :	Australia
Keywords :	[en] Desertification ; SAHEL ; Developing countries ; climate change ; drought ; human impacts
	[fr] désertification ; SAHEL ; Pays en développement ; changement climatique ; sécheresse ; impacts anthropiques
Abstract :	[en] Over the last decades, the Sahel of West Africa has suffered two dramatic contiguous droughts. Currently, and since the early 1990, rainfalls record an amelioration that tends towards the average of precipitation previous to the 1970s. However, this improvement may be due to increasing rainfall intensity and it seems that the length of the rainy season did not show any extension when compared to the 1970s and 1980s. On the other hand, the Sahelian population has been multiplied by 3 since 1950 and is foreseen to be multiplied by 10 by the second half of the 21st century. Increasing urban population levels are much more impressive and conduct important environmental distresses every day. Such increasing human pressure leads to uncontrolled deforestation in order to satisfy the needs in fuel wood, wood for construction and shifting cultivation. In addition, always larger herds for contracting range conditions lead to overgrazing and trampling. All these processes provoke the degradation of the vegetation cover, a constant diminution of crop yields, as well as a strong reduction of the biodiversity. One of the numerous consequences is the reactivation of previously fixed dunes that were formed during the last interpluvial phase (18000 BP). Our research provides a state of the art of recent findings and controversy that surround the desertification processes and concludes that if the droughts of the 1970s and 1980s have had dramatic consequences for the population of the Sahel, current and coming increasing human pressure will very likely enhance desertification processes of the southern fringe of the Sahara.
Target :	Researchers ; Professionals ; Students
Permalink :	http://hdl.handle.net/2268/16050
Other URL :	http://www.geomorphology2009.com/default.asp
	http://www.geomorphology2009.com/cd-abstracts/Papers/846.pdf

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	File	Commentary	Version	Size	Access
Open access	Desertification_IAG_AUSTRALIA2009_OZER&OZER.pdf		Author preprint	5.53 MB	View/Open

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