Vulnerability of Natural Resources in Tunisian Arid Zones facing Climate Change and Human Pressure

Mondher Fétoui, Mongi Sghaier, Maud Loireau () and Farah Chouikhi
Additional contact information
Mondher Fétoui: Laboratoire Economie et Sociologie Rurales, LESOR - IRA - Institut des Régions Arides
Mongi Sghaier: Laboratoire Economie et Sociologie Rurales, LESOR - IRA - Institut des Régions Arides
Maud Loireau: UMR 228 Espace-Dev, Espace pour le développement - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - UPVD - Université de Perpignan Via Domitia - AU - Avignon Université - UR - Université de La Réunion - UNC - Université de la Nouvelle-Calédonie - UG - Université de Guyane - UA - Université des Antilles - UM - Université de Montpellier, IRD (Occitanie) - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD en Occitanie), UPVD - Université de Perpignan Via Domitia
Farah Chouikhi: Laboratoire Economie et Sociologie Rurales, LESOR - IRA - Institut des Régions Arides

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: The main challenges of Tunisian arid areas is better understand desertification and better adapt decisions to uncertainties that arise in complex interactions between the socioeconomic and biophysical dynamics at different spatial and temporal scales. This understanding is increasingly necessary to better target actions and improve coping strategies. The objective of this work is to assess the vulnerability of natural resources and the risk of desertification at the local scale, in a case study (Oum Zessar watershed) located in the southeast of Tunisia. The assessment is carried out through an analysis of different human and biophysical causes and driving forces, such as natural resources uses and climate change. It is based on geographical (landscape), integrated (socio-economy, biophysics) and multi-actors (research-decision) approaches, associated with reproducible methods and models to assess the risk of desertification, and to better target future combating actions. The work led to the development of desertification risk indexes (based on spatial integration of biophysical and socioeconomic functioning through modeling), facing several scenarios of climate change and human pressure. It shows that the same level of risk in one place or another may have differentiated causes, which could help public policy in their fighting against desertification.

Keywords: Desertification risk; Vulnerability; Spatial integration; Climate change; Human pressure; Decision support; Tunisian arid zones (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Published in Journal of Earth Science & Climatic Change, 2015, 06 (02), ⟨10.4172/2157-7617.1000260⟩

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04383534

DOI: 10.4172/2157-7617.1000260

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().