Agricultural Sustainability

A systematic study of major crops and their ecosystems in the Semi-arid Environments of South West Asia using remotely sensed data

1.0 Collaborators

Center for Earth Observation, Yale University, USA and The International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA)

2.0 Goals

This ongoing study uses data from multiple satellites and sensors acquired over multiple seasons to study arid-, and semi-arid crops in the: (a) researcher managed (for example, Figure 1); and (b) farmer managed farms of Syria. Some of the major crops of the semi-arid, and arid ecosystems are being studied and their sustainability over time periods evaluated. The ability of sensors to provide information on different crop growth stages, their ability to predict yield, and their sensitivity in detecting crop growing conditions in different management and environmental variations are being assessed. An evaluation of the impact of hybrid varieties, improved technologies, and pest, disease, and weed control measures introduced by the International Agricultural Research Centers and their national partners on sustaining agricultural production over time periods will also be evaluated.

Three of the major emphasis of this project will be to determine the impact of:

1. agricultural production systems on environmental and climatic changes
2. climatic change impact on agricultural productivity
3. the role of population dynamics on part (1) and (2). This cyclic phenomenon will be understood by a series of studies that cover macro- to micro-regions (see other South West Asian Projects in this web site).

3.0 Study Area

The study will be conducted in the northwestern Syria, in Aleppo and surroundings (see for example, the sample FCC of Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) image of the study area as shown in Figure 2). The ICARDA research farms (Figure 2) of about 1000 hectares constitutes a very small part of this study area.

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