Climate Change Implications and Use of Early Warning Systems for Global Dust Storms - Reducing Disaster: Early Warning Systems for Climate Change - page 147

Chapter 8
Climate Change Implications and Use of Early
Warning Systems for Global Dust Storms

Lindsey M. Harriman

Abstract With increased changes in land cover and global climate, early detection
and warning of dust storms in conjunction with effective and widespread information
broadcasts will be essential to the prevention and mitigation of future risks and
impacts. Human activities, seasonal variations and long-term climatic patterns infl u-
ence dust storms. More research is needed to analyse these factors of dust mobilisa-
tion to create more certainty for the fate of vulnerable populations and ecosystems in
the future. Early warning and communication systems, when in place and effectively
implemented, can offer some relief to these vulnerable areas. As an issue that affects
many regions of the world, there is a profound need to understand the potential
changes and ultimately create better early warning systems for dust storms.

Keywords Dust • Transboundary • Climate change • Aerosols • Early warning •
Forecasting

8.1 The Need for Early Warning

While climate change will increase temperatures, desertifi cation and frequency of
drought across different parts of the world (IPCC 2007 ), and thus possibly increase
the potential for dust storms (Wilcox 2012 ; Shao et al. 2011 ), the actual impact of
climate change on dust storm frequency and severity is unknown. Impacts of cli-
mate change can be exacerbated by human activities which already contribute to the
intensity and frequency of dust storms (Yang et al. 2007 ; Ginoux et al. 2010 ).
Additionally, different regions of the globe have high interannual, as well as annual