Climate change and geo-environmental factors influencing desertification: a critical review

Paramita Roy; Subodh Chandra Pal; Rabin Chakrabortty; Indrajit Chowdhuri; Asish Saha; Dipankar Ruidas; Abu Reza Md Towfiqul Islam; Aznarul Islam

doi:10.1007/s11356-024-32432-9

Climate change and geo-environmental factors influencing desertification: a critical review

Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2024 Feb 19. doi: 10.1007/s11356-024-32432-9. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Paramita Roy¹, Subodh Chandra Pal², Rabin Chakrabortty¹, Indrajit Chowdhuri¹, Asish Saha¹, Dipankar Ruidas¹, Abu Reza Md Towfiqul Islam^{3

4}, Aznarul Islam⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Geography, The University of Burdwan, Purba Bardhaman, West Bengal, 713104, India.
² Department of Geography, The University of Burdwan, Purba Bardhaman, West Bengal, 713104, India. geo.subodh@gmail.com.
³ Department of Disaster Management, Begum Rokeya University, Rangpur, 5400, Bangladesh.
⁴ Department of Development Studies, Daffodil International University, Dhaka, 1216, Bangladesh.
⁵ Department of Geography, Aliah University, 17 Gorachand Road, Kolkata, 700014, West Bengal, India.

PMID: 38372926
DOI: 10.1007/s11356-024-32432-9

Abstract

The problem of desertification (DSF) is one of the most severe environmental disasters which influence the overall condition of the environment. In Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit on Environment and Development (1922), DSF is defined as arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid induced LD and that is adopted at the UNEP's Nairobi ad hoc meeting in 1977. It has been seen that there is no variability in the trend of long-term rainfall, but the change has been found in the variability of temperature (avg. temp. 0-5 °C). There is no proof that the air pollution brought on by CO₂ and other warming gases is the cause of this rise, which seems to be partially caused by urbanization. The two types of driving factors in DSF-CC (climate change) along with anthropogenic influences-must be compared in order to work and take action to stop DSF from spreading. The proportional contributions of human activity and CC to DSF have been extensively evaluated in this work from "qualitative, semi-quantitative, and quantitative" perspectives. In this study, we have tried to connect the drives of desertification to desertification-induced migration due to loss of biodiversity and agriculture failure. The authors discovered that several of the issues from the earlier studies persisted. The policy-makers should follow the proper SLM (soil and land management) through using the land. The afforestation with social forestry and consciousness among the people can reduce the spreading of the desertification (Badapalli et al. 2023). The green wall is also playing an important role to reduce the desertification. For instance, it was clear that assessments were subjective; they could not be readily replicated, and they always relied on administrative areas rather than being taken and displayed in a continuous space. This research is trying to fulfill the mentioned research gap with the help of the existing literatures related to this field.

Keywords: Climate change; Desertification; Global temperature; Urbanization.