On behalf of Mr. Koichiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO, it is my great pleasure to welcome you all to this international scientific conference. Drylands are often considered fragile ecosystems, yet they have a remarkable resilience to stress. They are home to unique and well-adapted plant and animal species that we need to conserve. Some of the world’s greatest cultures and belief systems have originated in drylands. On the other hand, desertification and land degradation in drylands often result in poverty and cause environmental refugees to abandon their homes. These problems can only be addressed in a holistic manner, based on sound scientific research and findings. Solutions to the problems of dryland degradation need to be communicated as widely as possible through education at all levels. These are many reasons why UNESCO – within its mandate of science, education, culture and communication – took the intiative to organize this conference. And we are glad that so many partners have responded to our call. UNESCO considers this conference as its main contribution to the observance of the International Year of Deserts and Desertification in 2006. We have deliberately chosen the title ‘The Future of Drylands’ as we feel it is time to redefine our priorities for science, education and governance in the drylands based on 50 years of scientific research in arid and semi-arid zones. In fact UNESCO has one of the longest traditions, within the UN system, of addressing dryland problems from an interdisciplinary, scientific point of view. In 1955, the ‘International Arid Land Meetings’ were held in Socorro, New Mexico (USA). They were organized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), sponsored by UNESCO and supported by the Rockefeller Foundation. One important output of the International Arid Land Meetings was a book entitled The Future of Drylands, edited by Gilbert F. White and published in

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

Global water crisis and future food security in an era of climate change

https://lirias.kuleuven.be/retrieve/78844

Deficit irrigation as an on-farm strategy to maximize crop water productivity in dry areas

[1] We explore and review the value of soil moisture measurements in vadose zone hydrology with a focus on the field and catchment scales This review is motivated by the increasing ability to measure soil moisture with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution across scales We highlight and review the state of the art in using soil moisture measurements for (1) estimation of soil hydraulic properties, (2) quantification of water and energy fluxes, and (3) retrieval of spatial and temporal dynamics of soil moisture profiles We argue for the urgent need to have access to field monitoring sites and databases that include detailed information about variability of hydrological fluxes and parameters, including their upscaled values In addition, improved data assimilation methods are needed that fully exploit the information contained in soil moisture data The development of novel upscaling methods for predicting effective moisture fluxes and disaggregation schemes toward integrating large-scale soil moisture measurements in hydrological models will increase the value of soil moisture measurements Finally, we recognize a need to develop strategies that combine hydrogeophysical measurement techniques with remote sensing methods

/pdf/on-the-value-of-soil-moisture-measurements-in-vadose-zone-21mx8q831k.pdf

On the value of soil moisture measurements in vadose zone hydrology: a review

During the last two decades, the water resources planning and management profession has seen a dramatic increase in the development and application of various types of evolutionary algorithms (EAs). This observation is especially true for application of genetic algorithms, arguably the most popular of the several types of EAs. Generally speaking, EAs repeatedly prove to be flexible and powerful tools in solving an array of complex water resources problems. This paper provides a comprehensive review of state-of-the-art methods and their applications in the field of water resources planning and management. A primary goal in this ASCE Task Committee effort is to identify in an organized fashion some of the seminal contributions of EAs in the areas of water distribution systems, urban drainage and sewer systems, water supply and wastewater treatment, hydrologic and fluvial modeling, groundwater systems, and parameter identification. The paper also identifies major challenges and opportunities for the future, ...

State of the Art for Genetic Algorithms and Beyond in Water Resources Planning and Management

https://academiccommons.columbia.edu/doi/10.7916/D8Q53063/download

Combining remote sensing-simulation modeling and genetic algorithm optimization to explore water management options in irrigated agriculture

Impacts of fertigation via sprinkler irrigation on nitrate leaching and corn yield in an acid–sulphate soil in Thailand

Testing and comparison of three unsaturated soil water flow models

This paper evaluates the possible impacts of climate change and land use change and its combined effects on soil loss and net soil loss (erosion and deposition) in the Mae Nam Nan sub-catchment, Thailand. Future climate from two general circulation models (GCMs) and a regional circulation model (RCM) consisting of HadCM3, NCAR CSSM3 and PRECIS RCM ware downscaled using a delta change approach. Cellular Automata/Markov (CA_Markov) model was used to characterize future land use. Soil loss modeling using Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) and sedimentation modeling in Idrisi software were employed to estimate soil loss and net soil loss under direct impact (climate change), indirect impact (land use change) and full range of impact (climate and land use change) to generate results at a 10 year interval between 2020 and 2040. Results indicate that soil erosion and deposition increase or decrease, depending on which climate and land use scenarios are considered. The potential for climate change to increase soil loss rate, soil erosion and deposition in future periods was established, whereas considerable decreases in erosion are projected when land use is increased from baseline periods. The combined climate and land use change analysis revealed that land use planning could be adopted to mitigate soil erosion and deposition in the future, in conjunction with the projected direct impact of climate change.

https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/5/8/3244/pdf

Simulating the Impact of Future Land Use and Climate Change on Soil Erosion and Deposition in the Mae Nam Nan Sub-Catchment, Thailand

The development and verification of a new contaminant transport model, called PESTFADE (PESTicide Fate And Dynamics in the Environment), is described PESTFADE is a one-dimensional transient mathematical model that can simulate simultaneous movement of water and solutes in the soil environment, as affected by runoff, leaching, dispersion, uptake, macropore flow, sorption/desorption, volatilization, heat flow, and chemical and microbial degradation The governing partial differential equation for coupled water and solute transport is solved by the Numerical Method of Lines (NMOL) technique

Roberto S. Clemente

Papers

Combining remote sensing-simulation modeling and genetic algorithm optimization to explore water management options in irrigated agriculture

Impacts of fertigation via sprinkler irrigation on nitrate leaching and corn yield in an acid–sulphate soil in Thailand

Testing and comparison of three unsaturated soil water flow models

Simulating the Impact of Future Land Use and Climate Change on Soil Erosion and Deposition in the Mae Nam Nan Sub-Catchment, Thailand

PESTFADE, A New Pesticide Fate and Transport Model: Model Development and Verification