South winds blowing on the eastern edge of a disturbance on Morocco drag dust raised in the Sahel to the Iberian Peninsula

The Climate Change Knowledge Portal (CCKP) Beta is a central hub of information, data and reports about climate change around the world. Here you can query, map, compare, chart and summarize key climate and climate-related information.

Modeling variations in soil salinity in the oasis of Junggar Basin, China Ligang Ma, Shengtian Yang, Zibibula Simayi, Qing Gu, Jiadan Li, Xiaodong Yang and Jianli Ding Version of Record online: 15 FEB 2018 | DOI: 10.1002/ldr.2890 Carbon Balance as Affected by Biosolid Application in Reforestations…

League of Arab States, World Meteorological Organization, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia and UN Environment organized the Regional Training Workshop on Sand and Dust Storms in the Arab Region in Cairo, Egypt from 10 to 12 February 2018. The workshop was hosted by the…

Asia hardest hit region, says report on the burden borne by poor farmers due to natural disasters

The newly released World Bank report, Groundswell: Preparing for Internal Climate Migration, analyzes this recent phenomenon and projects forward to 2050. Focusing on three regions — Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Latin America – the report warns that unless urgent climate and development…

This editorial represents a clarion call for the aeolian research community to provide increased scientific input to theIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and an in-vitation to apply for ISAR funding to organize a…

Climate change can both directly and indirectly drive human migration. Despite this, strong understanding of the system of determinants of migration and their interactions, remains a knowledge gap resulting in large uncertainties and ill-informed interventions

Climate change is already influencing migration and population movements – and will do so in future. Two perspectives on the nexus of migration and climate change have emerged: On the one hand, much policy and research attention is directed to climate change as a cause for migration, and for…

Mineral dust aerosols are an essential component of climate over West Africa, however, little work has been performed to investigate their contributions to potential climate change. A set of regional climate model experiments with and without mineral dust processes and land cover changes is…

Sand and Dust Storms (SDS) are extreme meteorological phenomena that generate significant amounts of airborne mineral dust particles. SDS play a significant role in different aspects of weather, climate and atmospheric chemistry and represent a serious hazard for life, health, property, environment…

Where in the world will people’s lives be affected by water issues by the year 2050? What is the impact of the growing global population, further urbanisation and climate change on these water risks, the food supply and migration? This new report by the PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment…

A new study has quantified the economic impact of reducing avoidable food waste in Germany, Poland and Spain. The researchers modelled impacts on production, GDP and employment. The results show that reducing food waste from households has the greatest impact, although policy measures should be…

The World Bank is pleased to release the 2018 Atlas of Sustainable Development Goals. With over 180 maps and charts, the new publication shows the progress societies are making towards the 17 SDGs. It’s filled with annotated data visualizations, which can be reproducibly built from source code and…

ISRIC, the international centre for world soil information, is a pioneer when it comes to Data Management. ISRIC has worked on compiling and harmonising data on soils for over 50 years. It makes the data available in a FAIR manner and supports open data where possible. ISRIC is therefore a real WUR…

In March this year, an unusual sand and dust storm nicknamed ‘Mars on Earth or Orange Snow[1]’ transported and deposited dust that transformed European landscapes into a surreal orange-tinted scenery. An even more drastic dust storm swept over India recently and left behind a trail of casualties.[2]…

The Senior Officials of the UN have agreed at EMG SOM 24 in the margins of UNGA to form a Coalition to Combat Sand and Dust Storms. Major tasks of this coalition will include raising awareness, convening stakeholders and raising the proper amount of funds to help combat this phenomenon. A few other…

The UNCCD library holds a specialized collection of monographs and series, reports, grey literature in fields of desertification, land degradation and drought, and its cross-cutting subjects such as development, economics, environment, land, soils, agriculture, energy, water, climate change…

Authors have written a convincing paper establishing the association between prenatal timing and exposure to sand and dust storms and children's cognitive functioning in China. This research is undoubtedly important, given that an estimated 150 parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat…

Erosion by wind is one of the principal processes associated with land degradation in drylands and is a significant concern to land managers and policymakers globally. In the drylands of North America, millions of tons of soil are lost to wind erosion annually. Of the 60 million ha in the United…

Desert dust whipped up by strong winds and volcanic aerosols alter the climate as the world warms

Millions of people across Sub-Saharan Africa could face grave hunger in the first half of 2020 because of armed conflict, political instability and climate change-linked disasters, a report from the WFP says.The report published by the UN World Food Programme (WFP) this month says that the countries…

Through these divisional factsheets FAO aims to provide the readers with concise and clear descriptions on the work they carry out

Dust and sand storms(DSS) occurrences often have an adverse impact on organisms’ life styles and their environment, not only in the source region but also in the downwind regions.

The papers present original research on land (soil and vegetation) degradation and desertification in drylands (and related subjects) using spectroscopy and remote sensing tools and techniques.