#The Integrated Biophysical and Climate Susceptibility sub-service

The Integrated Biophysical and Climate Susceptibility is a geographic map representing the susceptibility to desertification of the covered areas with a range between 0 and 1. The higher values correspond to places whose history indicates a dynamic drift towards the advancement of desertification processes.

This indicator is comprised of two fundamental components:

Climate

• Static component, which refers to the mean number of droughts over a period of 20 years.
• Dynamic component, which refers to the trend of droughts over a 10 years period.

Biophysical Factors

• Vegetation, which refers to the relative status of the vegetation in specific Land Cover classes.
• Soil, which refers to the relative status of the soil in specific Land Cover classes.

The intermediate indicators:

• Local static degradation [CS(x)]
• Local dynamic degradation [CD(x)]
• Local vegetation status [V(x)]
• Local soil status [S(x)]
• Vegetation and Soil status [B(x)]

The ISD is F(CD(x), CS(X) and B(x)) and it is classified as follows:

• Low Susceptibility (0 to 0.64)
• Medium Susceptibility (0.64 to 0.74)
• High Susceptibility (0.74 to 1)