ROSELT/OSS Network in the African arid regions
317
ROSEL TIOSS Network in the African arid regions
J.-M. D'Herbes
1 Long Term Ecological Monitoring Observatories Network
of the Sahara and Sahel Observatory
ROSELT/OSS is a network constituted by a group of observatories collecting and
exploiting field and teledetection data in terms of environment and renewable
resources management. It is the first network of this importance in arid circumSaharian Africa, which organizes and exploites a thematic and statistical follow-up
on the environment from local level to national level.
ROSELD/OSS strategy is designed intentionally as an essential contribution to
understanding environmental phenomena, and namely desertification in liaison with
the problematic of the climate global changes, biodiversity and sustainable
development. ROSELT/OSS is simultaneously a tool serving both research and
development, through three major concerns:
I) To contribute in improving basic knowledges on the functioning and long-term
evolution of ecological and agricultural systems and on the co-viability between
ecological systems and socio-economic systems.
Corresponding objectives relate to environmental monitoring and research. They
clearly refer to the provisions of articles 16 and 17 of the International
Convention on the Control of Desertification:
- To ensure an activity of monitoring the causes an effects of desertification by
measuring the state and evolution of climatic factors, of areas concerned on both
biological and physical levels (by bringing up to light the functionings and
irreversibility thresholds in the ecosystems), of the uses and socio-economic
activities in relation with the environment.
To carry out researches on the mechanisms which lead to desertification by
clarifying on one part the interactions between the causes (climatic, anthropic)
and the effects of desertification and, on the other, the dynamic relationships
between the ecological systems and the social systems, by combining both
approaches.
2) To contribute in assuring that these knowledges are used through grouping, data
processing and their availability, through the design of indicators and end
products at different local, sub-national, national and regional levels. These
317
ROSEL TIOSS Network in the African arid regions
J.-M. D'Herbes
1 Long Term Ecological Monitoring Observatories Network
of the Sahara and Sahel Observatory
ROSELT/OSS is a network constituted by a group of observatories collecting and
exploiting field and teledetection data in terms of environment and renewable
resources management. It is the first network of this importance in arid circumSaharian Africa, which organizes and exploites a thematic and statistical follow-up
on the environment from local level to national level.
ROSELD/OSS strategy is designed intentionally as an essential contribution to
understanding environmental phenomena, and namely desertification in liaison with
the problematic of the climate global changes, biodiversity and sustainable
development. ROSELT/OSS is simultaneously a tool serving both research and
development, through three major concerns:
I) To contribute in improving basic knowledges on the functioning and long-term
evolution of ecological and agricultural systems and on the co-viability between
ecological systems and socio-economic systems.
Corresponding objectives relate to environmental monitoring and research. They
clearly refer to the provisions of articles 16 and 17 of the International
Convention on the Control of Desertification:
- To ensure an activity of monitoring the causes an effects of desertification by
measuring the state and evolution of climatic factors, of areas concerned on both
biological and physical levels (by bringing up to light the functionings and
irreversibility thresholds in the ecosystems), of the uses and socio-economic
activities in relation with the environment.
To carry out researches on the mechanisms which lead to desertification by
clarifying on one part the interactions between the causes (climatic, anthropic)
and the effects of desertification and, on the other, the dynamic relationships
between the ecological systems and the social systems, by combining both
approaches.
2) To contribute in assuring that these knowledges are used through grouping, data
processing and their availability, through the design of indicators and end
products at different local, sub-national, national and regional levels. These