Assessment of environmentally sensitive areas to desertification in the Blue Nile Basin driven by the MEDALUS-GEE framework

Abdelrazek Elnashar; Hongwei Zeng; Bingfang Wu; Tesfay Gebretsadkan Gebremicael; Khadiga Marie

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.152925

Assessment of environmentally sensitive areas to desertification in the Blue Nile Basin driven by the MEDALUS-GEE framework

Sci Total Environ. 2022 Apr 1:815:152925. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.152925. Epub 2022 Jan 7.

Authors

Abdelrazek Elnashar¹, Hongwei Zeng², Bingfang Wu³, Tesfay Gebretsadkan Gebremicael⁴, Khadiga Marie⁵

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100094, China; College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; Department of Natural Resources, Faculty of African Postgraduate Studies, Cairo University, Giza 12613, Egypt. Electronic address: abdelrazek@aircas.ac.cn.
² State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100094, China; College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China. Electronic address: zenghw@aircas.ac.cn.
³ State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100094, China; College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China. Electronic address: wubf@aircas.ac.cn.
⁴ Soil and Water Science Department, University of Florida/IFAS/West Florida Research and Education Center, 5988 Hwy 90, Bldg 4900, Milton, FL 32583, USA; Tigray Agricultural Research Institute, Mekelle 492, Ethiopia.. Electronic address: t.gebremicael@ufl.edu.
⁵ Department of Geography and Geographic Information Systems, Faculty of African Postgraduate Studies, Cairo University, Giza 12613, Egypt. Electronic address: khadega.abdelhamed@cu.edu.eg.

PMID: 34999074
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.152925

Abstract

Assessing environmentally sensitive areas (ESA) to desertification and understanding their primary drivers are necessary for applying targeted management practices to combat land degradation at the basin scale. We have developed the MEditerranean Desertification And Land Use framework in the Google Earth Engine cloud platform (MEDALUS-GEE) to map and assess the ESA index at 300 m grids in the Blue Nile Basin (BNB). The ESA index was derived from elaborating 19 key indicators representing soil, climate, vegetation, and management through the geometric mean of their sensitivity scores. The results showed that 43.4%, 28.8%, and 70.4% of the entire BNB, Upper BNB, and Lower BNB, respectively, are highly susceptible to desertification, indicating appropriate land and water management measures should be urgently implemented. Our findings also showed that the main land degradation drivers are moderate to intensive cultivation across the BNB, high slope gradient and water erosion in the Upper BNB, and low soil organic matter and vegetation cover in the Lower BNB. The study presented an integrated monitoring and assessment framework for understanding desertification processes to help achieve land-related sustainable development goals.

Keywords: Cloud computing; Google earth engine; Land degradation and desertification; MEDALUS; Spatial analysis.

MeSH terms

Climate
Conservation of Natural Resources*
Soil*

Substances

Soil