Department of Geography.

Valahia University of Targoviste

Annals of Valahia University of Targoviste. Geographical Series
Tome 15/2015 Issues 2: 85-93
http://fsu.valahia.ro/images/avutgs/home.html

A MULTICRITERIA EVALUATION ABOUT CRITICAL RISK SITUATIONS

OF DESERTIFICATION IN THE REGION OF EASTERN AURES (ALGERIA).
Abdelhafid BOUZEKRI1, Hassen BENMESSAOUD1
1Laboratory

"Natural Hazards and Planning"

Faculty of Science -University El Hadj Lakhdar -Batna- lgeria Tel.: 00213 668292940
E-mail : ha123_m123@yahoo.fr

Abstract
This article presents the results of our study on the multi-criteria evaluation of critical situations at the risk of
desertification in the eastern Aurs, the appropriate methodology is based on the use of GIS (geographic
information systems) and technical remote sensing coupled with the Analytic Hierarchy process method
(AHP) based on weighted criteria, the results obtained demonstrate a significant effect of both ecological and
socio-economic vulnerability of the land to the desertification, the final card gave 32.48% of areas with a
fragile situation at the risk of desertification and 24.94% of areas in critical situations, these results helped to
prove the importance and risk of desertification in of eastern Aurs.
Keywords: Desertification, Multi-criteria analysis, GIS, Orientals Aurs.

1 INTRODUCTION

The phenomenon of desertification is considered one of the most serious environmental

problems of the 21st century. desertification, means a situation of land degradation, related
socio-economic context of the natural uses of resources beyond their capacity to restore, often
aggravated by fluctuations in weather conditions (Benslimane et al .2008).
The manifestation of the phenomenon of desertification results in a decrease in vegetation
cover and potential of ecological systems and deterioration of soil and water resources (Nedjraoui
and al.2008).
Algeria, like the developing countries experiencing a degradation of non-renewable
resources, renewable or difficult, such as forests, soils and waters because of poverty and
population growth (Benmessaoud et al .2009), the Oriental Aurs region is a part of the arid and
semi arid Mediterranean sensitive to human activities and climate change, these fragile regions
became the theater phenomenon of desertification caused by the intense degradation of the
fragile environment in particular silting, wind erosion, land clearance and salinization.
In previous studies, the risk of desertification assessed using remote sensing data by the
Terra
MODIS sensor in Northern Algeria (Benslimane et al, 2008) and numerical evaluation
by model MEDALUS in the Aurs region (Benmessaoud, 2009) in this research by assessing the
risk of desertification by using the hierarchical analysis of processes taking four ecological and
anthropogenic criteria in complete aggregation criteria.
The approach of integration of multi-criteria analysis methods and geographic information
systems is used to assess critical situations at risk of desertification; it is a tool to help the
decision allowing the spatial location of the priority areas project planning to fight against this
major risk.
85

2. STUDY AREA

The eastern Aures located east of the Saharan Atlas between 34.16 and 35.67 north
latitude and between 6.50 and 7, 92 longitude, it covers a total area of 1,421 nearby. 732 ha, it
rises to 2,326 m Ras Kulthum, is the highest of northern Algeria, it is characterized by high
gradients.

Figure 1. Location of the study area.

The climate of the eastern Aurs is continental in the north and almost Saharan south, the
winters are very harsh and hot, dry summers, the spread of bioclimatic sub-humid to semi- arid.
The soils are largely poor and shallow except for the northern plains where the soil
is relatively deep, way, and aside from a few isolated places where bedrock outcrops.
The vegetation of the area is composed of two types of forest cover in the North, it is
covered from upstream to downstream by cedar, oak, Aleppo pine and Phoenician juniper, In
thesouthern region, vegetation is formed by the steppe and Saharan route, the major species
encountered are the Alfa and mugwort
In human terms, the study area has experienced population growth that growth concerned
the agglomerated population sparse population. The social and biological balance has been strongly
disturbed by increased needs caused by population growth has not been accompanied by the
creation of sufficient jobs to absorb the substantial excess labor relative to needs a reasonable
exploitation of rangeland (Boukhobza,1982; Khaldoun,1995; Bedrani,1996, 2001).

3. METHODOLOGY

Our approach is based on the application of multi-criteria analysis integrated

with geographical information systems for our evaluation performed at the risk of desertification in
this evaluation we continued the following main steps: prioritizing and structuring criteria,
weighting and complete aggregation based on the weighted sum is intended to produce a precise
86

mapping of unaffected areas, potential, fragile and critical, the methodological approach is
illustrated (figure.2).

Figure 2. Methodological Organizational Chart

3.1. Prioritization and structuring of criteria

For the multi-criteria evaluation of critical situations at the risk of desertification, we

adopted the method AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process), this simplified approach our assessment in
a hierarchical structure
Level 0: Corresponds to the main objective, multi-criteria evaluation of critical
situations at the risk of desertification in the Aurs region.
Level 1: Expresses the decision criteria or analysis in the case of the presented study, the
criterion of vegetation cover, soil test, climate criterion and the criterion of socio- economic issues
were retained.
Level 2: Translated characteristics criteria, these characteristics of the criteria in this
87

study are the various sub criteria that attribute values to determine the numerical scale for each
criterion in making our assessment, the characteristics of the criteria and attributes values
developed according to MEDALUS method (Mediterranean Desertification and land use) that is
tested by several researchers in the Mediterranean region at the early nineties.

Figure 3. Prioritization decision criteria.

3.1.1 Criterion of vegetation cover:

The land state used is a criterion to be taken into account in the multi-criteria evaluation of
critical situations at the risk of desertification; it can be appreciated by the importance of the
vegetation cover, which by its absence, desertification accelerated and by his presence
desertification curbed.
3.1.2. Soil criteria

The floor of the Aures region and their morpho-pedological characteristics are a source
of very important information to take into account in the multi-criteria risk assessment of
desertification because the study area based on shallow soils and poor that accelerate the dynamics
of desertification.
The soil test expresses the susceptibility to detachment or removal of particles and fine
sands of the soil under the effect of winds, rains and runoff, this criterion will be achieved by sub
criteria related to soil texture, the nature of the parent material, slope, the drainage density, these
soil parameters directly or indirectly related to sensitivity to desertification.

88

3.1.3. Climate criteria

The climate in the Mediterranean region is a key factor of ecosystems and the climatic
conditions in arid and semi arid acting on the acceleration of the processes of desertification.
In our assessment of the risk of desertification climate criterion is evaluated using three
parameters (under test) that influence land degradation and drought languages
The criteria under influence climate condition are precipitation, bioclimatic stage and
exhibition ground.
3.1.4. Criterion socioeconomic issues:

The parameters used to define the criteria of socio-economic issues in the study area
concern the intensity of land use and grazing intensity and development policies committed to fight
against desertification.
3.2. Weighting of criteria

Before the combination of different criteria, we established their relative importance, as

these criteria influencing the risk of desertification do not have the same importance, the relative
importance is expressed by numbers, often called weight, the process of hierarchical analysis
(Analytical Process- Heirarchy AHP) was developed by Thomas Saaty in the 1980s, it can
produce weight coefficient whose sum is equal to 1, the weights of the criteria are determined from
a series of pair wise comparison of criteria according to their relative importance of two criteria.
To determine the relative importance of each of the two criteria hierarchy to perform pair
wise comparisons, we will compare two by two deferent criteria, by assigning a numerical score, a
numerical scale (Scale of Saaty, 1977).
The weighting step is very delicate and requires the intervention of policy makers and
specialists in the field of regional planning and ecology for the assignment importance degree to
each pair wise comparison For our work, we used the values presented on the following matrix:

Table 1. Matrix weighting pairwise criteria.

Table. 02 reprsente the values of the weights that are performed by the Expert
choice software that implements the method of Saaty,

89

Table 2. Weight values for the different criteria.

3.3. Aggregation of criteria

Once the layers of the criteria was established based on the weights, the combination of
these criteria has resulted in a decision-making board for the assessment of risk of desertification in
the Aures region, this operation is called aggregation criteria,
GIS-AMC integration allows aggregation criteria, the technical of the weighted
sum (Weighted Sum) also called the linear-addition method allows us a complete aggregation, it
consists in multiplying each standardized criterion layer multiplied by its respective weighting
coefficient from the Expert software chioce from AHP method and then add these results to produce
an aggregated intelligence map and quantify on a scale of 0-4.

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The use of methods of multi-criteria analysis (MCA) combined with geographic information
systems (GIS) has established a decision-making board for the assessment risk of desertification,
soft card results helped define the spatially study area in a scale between 0 and
4, a pixel with a high value indicates that the pixel is in a critical situation with the risk of
desertification, to facilitate the reading of this card, we defined four levels classes in the
following table we give the area in hectares and% different classes of desertification situations that
show the importance of desertification in the study area.
The classes

type

defined

attributes
values

The area in
hectares

The
area in%

Class 1

Areas Unaffected

0-1,17

17621,01

12,22

Class 2

Potential areas

1,17-1,30

45244,44

31,36

Class 3

fragile areas

1,31-1,50

46841,76

32,48

Class4

Critical Areas

1,51-4

34524,54

23,94

Table 3. Area and percentage of desertification classes.

90

Figure 4. graphic representation of the different desertification situations.

The review of the desertification map and statistical data on the table .... show that the study
area from unaffected areas to critical areas as follows:
Unrestricted situations: the situation corresponding to the non-threatened areas in risk
of desertification, they occupy 17621.01 ha or 12% of the total area of the study area, these areas
are located on the forests of Chlia, Aures and Feraoun, these massive peak at altitudes that
exceed 2000m when the canopy is rich and dense, and are dominated by raw mineral soils erosion
and low evolved soils carbonate,
Potential situations: the situation for the areas potentially at risk and do not present a
danger to the phenomenon of desertification, in the case of areas lined with a canopy of medium
density (Artemisia moiety, group Alfa and grain farming ) based on calcimagnesic soils, these
areas have a surface area of 45,244.44 hectares or 31.36% of the total area of the study area and
well illustrated in the municipalities of Nsigha, Elmahmal, Ain Touilla and South Tamza .
Fragile Situations: sensitive areas represent the bulk of the study area, they occupy
46,841.76 hectares or 32.48% of the total area and are located mainly in the central
region of the study area extending South of the Monts de N'mamecha these fragile areas
corresponding to the areas colonized by vegetation cover degraded very deteriorated based on soil
type changed little
Critical situations: critical situations at risk of desertification and well illustrated in the
southern part of the four common Babar, Ferkane, Stah Guentis and Thelidjene, the estimate of
the proportion of these critical situations in relation to the total area is
23.94% is an area of 144,231.75 hectares, these critical areas distinguished by vegetation
degradation and poverty of soil organic matter to the irreversibility of land which is mostly sandcovered areas of southern Babar The severity of critical situations explained by steppe
vegetation cover (Artrophitum scoparium) very strongly degraded, based on textured soils
predominantly sandy.

CONCLUSION

The objective of this study was to adopt a methodology for assessing critical situations at
the risk of desertification in the Aures region, this evaluation possible to integrate multi-criteria
analysis methods and geographic information systems, we considered the four dominant criteria
(vegetation, climate, soil and socioeconomic issue), this allowed us to assess the severity of the
resulting desert process by assigning a specific weight to each of the four criteria in consultation
with field expert working dice on the Aures area.

91

Figure 5. Map of desertification risk situations.

The evaluation of the risk of desertification in the region of the Aures helped highlight a
mapping decision aims to classify the study area four situations based on the importance of risk
of desertification, zoning This mapping has shown that the evolution of this major natural scourge
is very important because it threatens more than half of the surface of the study area, 32% of
92

which are fragile and 24% are critical and irreversible situation.
These results for cartographic and enlighten decision makers and managers on critical areas
to desertification risks to be considered in the choice of priority intervention.

REFERENCES

Benmessaoud, H., Kalla, M. et Driddi, H., 2009, volution de l'occupation des sols et
dsertification dans le Sud des Aurs(Algrie). M@ppemonde, 94(6).
BedranI S., 1996, Foncier et gestion des ressources naturelles en Afrique du Nord. Cas de lAlgrie.
Act. Atel. Le foncier et la gestion des ressources naturelles dans les zones arides et semi-arides
dAfrique du Nord. OSS., 3-32.
Bedrani S., 2001, Les contraintes au dveloppement des zones steppiques et la mise en valeur
par les concessions, Ministre de lagriculture. Alger.
Bensaid, A., Barki, M., Talbi, O., Benhanifia, K. et Mendas, A. 2007, L'analyse multicritre comme
un outil d'aide la dcision pour la localisation spatiale des zones forte pression anthropique:
le cas de dpartement de Nama en Algrie. Revue de tldtection, 7. (1-2-3-4), p359-371.
Benslimane, M., Hamimed, A., El Zerey, W., Khaldi, A. et Mederbal, K. 2008, Analyse et suivi du
phnomne de la dsertification en Algrie du Nord. VertigO. 8(3).
Boukhobza, M., 1982, L'agropastoralisme traditionnel en Algrie: de l'ordre tribal au dsordre
colonial. OPU; Alger, 458p.
Bouzekri, A., Benmessaoud H. 2014, Study and diachronic analysis of changes of ground
occupation in area of oriental Aures Algeria. Analele Universitatti din Oradea - Seria Geografie,
Year XXIV,no2/2014(Decembre).
Chakhar, S. 2006, Cartographie dcisionnelle multicritre: formalisation et implmentation
informatique. Thse de doctorat Paris Dauphin.300p.
Conchita, M., Kdowide, G. 2010, Modlisation gomantique par valuation multicritre pour
la prospection des sites d'agriculture urbaine Ouagadougou. Vertigo.10(2).
Khaldoun A., 1995, Les mutations rcentes de la rgion steppique dEl Aricha. Rseau
Parcours, 59-54.
Kosmas, C., Kirkby, M. et Geeson, N. 1999, Manual on key indicators of desertification and
mapping environmentally sensitive areas to desertification. The Medalus project. Mediterranean
desertification and land use. Project Report. 94p.
Nedjraoui, D. et Bdrani, S. 2008, La dsertification dans les steppes algriennes : causes, impacts
et action de lutte. VertigO.8(1).
Saaty, T.L. 1977, A scaling method for priorities in hierarchical structures. Journal of mathematical
Psychology, No (15):234-281.

93