Climate Change Implications and Use of Early Warning Systems for Global Dust Storms - Reducing Disaster: Early Warning Systems for Climate Change - page 156

Table 8.1 Research aspects needed for the development of future forecasting and early warning
Research aspect Specifi c area of study Outcome

Atmospheric
conditions

Localised ground station monitoring
(i.e. of air quality, wind speed and
direction, aerosol concentrations, etc.)

Improved regional models, more
accurate forecasts and
extended length of valid
forecasts; improved ability to
determine where a dust storm
originates

Increase record-keeping of seasonal
and climatic trends, including those
projected with regional climate
change implications

More accurate forecasts and
extended length of valid
forecasts

Dust model validation for global and
regional models

Improved models and forecasts

Origin point
of storm

Differentiate between dust storms
originating because of climate change
conditions and those caused by human
activities

Improved ability to understand
human impact on land and
climate infl uences

Research geomorphological
characteristics of the land such
as topography, glacial presence
and particle composition to refi ne
the extent of dust source areas

Contribute to improved and more
specifi c regional forecasts and
early warning efforts

Impacts Dust implications on health Determine what is being caused by

dust storms as opposed to other
environmental factors; create
better preparation and
prevention plans

Continue studies on transboundary issues
such as dust transport from the Sahara
and its role in tropical storm
formation and intensifi cation

Create better understanding of the
impact dust has on the climate
and what that means for future
climate change

Mitigation
efforts

Measure and evaluate aid and risk
reduction activities such as re-vegeta-
tion projects (i.e. Grain to Green
Program in China)

Improvements on existing
programmes can be made or
those that are not effective can
be stopped; more specifi c and
result-driven programmes can
be developed for the future

Develop policies and practices regarding
land use, development, desertifi cation
and any other risk increasing activity

Attempt to reduce the possibility
or intensity of future dust
storms

Early warning
systems

Measure and evaluate effectiveness
of existing methods of early
warning information dissemination
and their infl uence in increasing
preparedness and decreasing impact
costs and severity

Determination of information
best-practices for future
warning systems

Compiled from Leys et al. ( 2011 ), Wang et al. ( 2008 ), Ginoux et al. ( 2010 ), Yang et al. ( 2007 ), de
Longueville et al. ( 2013 ), Thalib and Al-Taiar ( 2012 ), NASA ( 2013d ), Kimura ( 2012a ), Shao et al. ( 2011 )