Les dossiers thématiques du CSFD, issue 3: combattre l'érosion éolienne, un volet de la lutte contre la désertification

Wind erosion - alone or combined with other physical or socio-economic causes - is a mechanism that may induce desertification, i.e. a severe or irreversible degradation of water and soil resources. Now this phenomenon is better understood, the model of the 70’s that dissociated three stages (causes, mechanisms, consequences) has been discarded, in view of the many feedbacks and insidious links generated by wind erosion. Efficiently combating the damaging effects of wind erosion requires the timely detection of triggering thresholds with remote sensing tools (satellite images and aerial photographs), and the spatial delimitation and positioning of the phenomena observed. No field operations can be effective without knowing beforehand wind erosion mechanisms at the land-atmosphere interface.