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Work through this web enquiry first:

1. What IS desertification?

A glossary is available at the following web site: www.unccd.int/knowledge/menu.php

2. Identify the desert areas of the world using an atlas and transfer this information to a political map of the world, making note of the countries most affected.
3. Complete the following table and plot the data (either Affected Area or Population OR both). This could be completed using graphical packages or mapped as proportional circles / squares.

From Geo Factsheet September 1997 Number 28

4. Build an animation of the vegetational changes that have taken place over a 10 year period from 1984-1994 a or changes in the biosphere from the following web site from January 1999 to June 2000.t the following site:

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/bios.seawifs.html

5. Describe the patterns that you see and state how the Sahara has changed in area over this time. (Tip: You can drag the slide backwards and forward to get a better indication of change). From the images to what extent can it be said that the desert expands?

6. Concentrating on Africa identify the countries that may be threatened by increased desertification resulting from expansion of the Sahara towards the south. This region is called the Sahel.

7. Locate a city on the margins of the desert, e.g. Tombouctou, and obtain climatic information for it by using the following web site: www.worldclimate.com

8. Plot the rainfall and temperature data obtained above using a spreadsheet program and discuss any issues that might arise from such a climate. How might slight changes in global climate affect the region?

9. View the following images: http://drylands.nasm.edu:1995/sahel2.html What do these satellite images suggest to you? From what you saw on the animations above, how might these be misleading?

10. Study the following photograph:

What problems might arise for those living in an area like this?

11. Using a Search engine such as www.google.com  locate and obtain further information from relevant websites.

http://www.unccd.int/publicinfo/factsheets/menu.php

http://www.unccd.int/publicinfo/factsheets/showFS.php?number=11

http://www.gci.ch/GreenCrossPrograms/waterres/desertification/Desert.html

Your task

Now word-process a report (1500 words) or produce a presentation incorporating images, maps and graphs, where possible, to address the following questions:

1. What may have caused the current level of global desertification and to what extent is desertification a natural phenomenon?

2. What are the consequences of desertification?

3. Would you suggest that desertification is only a local issue?

4. How has Africa tried to combat Desertification?

Desertification in Developing Countries

The purpose is to:
To develop a full understanding of the physical and human causes of desertification, the impacts that desertification has upon social and ecosystems and the means that are being employed to tackle the problem

Stuart Hitch, City of Stoke on Trent VI Form College