SENEGAL7: Desertification Hazard Model for Senegal

The Senegal Desertification Hazard model was developed for the UNEP/FAO/ESRI Database for Africa. It is a raster dataset in IDRISI format, created in April 1987 using an FAO-provided model that considered soil constraints, wind and water action, salinization, and population pressure. The data was rasterized by GRID-Geneva with cell sizes of approximately one and four square kilometers.

Use Cases

• Modeling desertification risk based on soil constraints and salinization factors mentioned in the description.
• Analyzing landscape pressure from human and animal populations as described in the model's methodology.
• Assessing environmental hazards from wind and water erosion using the provided raster data layers.
• Validating or extending regional desertification models using the FAO-provided framework referenced.

Strengths

• Based on a multi-factor model developed by FAO, incorporating soil, climate, and population pressures.
• Rasterized with defined spatial resolutions of approximately 1 km² and 4 km² pixels.
• Derived from authoritative source maps including the 1:5,000,000 scale FAO/UNESCO Soil Map of the World.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Last update date is unknown; data is from 1987 and freshness unverified.
• Row count and file size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

UNEP/GRID-Nairobi, FAO Soil Resources, Management and Conservation Service.

Collection Method

Developed using an iterative process and an FAO-provided model, rasterized from digitized coverages.

Time Range

Model publication date is April 1987.

Freshness

Publication date is April 1987; update frequency is unknown.

Geography

Senegal.