Abstract
Dust storms originate in many of the world's drylands and frequently present hazards to human society, both within the drylands themselves but also outside drylands due to long-range transport of aeolian sediments. Desert dust hazards can occur where dust is entrained, during the transport phase, and on deposition. This paper draws on studies in physical geography, medical geology and geomorphology to discuss case studies of accelerated soil erosion, the health effects of air pollution caused by desert aerosols, injuries related to transport accidents caused by poor visibility during desert dust events, the spread of disease, and problems with water supplies and at solar power plants caused by dust deposition.
Highlights
Desert dust has numerous wide-ranging impacts on the Earth system and on human society both within the world’s deserts and semi-deserts, where most dust storms originate, and beyond the drylands due to longrange transport [1, 2]
Desert dust hazards threaten livelihoods, environment and economy, and are likely to undermine the implementation of several Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets established by the United Nations (UN), those related to human health, productivity, agriculture and infrastructure
Other recent resolutions concerning sand and dust storms have been adopted by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific and the UN Environment Assembly, both in 2016. These resolutions acknowledge that sand and dust storms represent a severe impediment to the sustainable development of affected developing countries and the well-being of their peoples and urge individual countries to address these challenges through relevant policy measures. Progress towards meeting these challenges by the World Meteorological Organization began in 2007 when it initiated its Sand and Dust Storm Warning Advisory and Assessment System (SDS-WAS), but research into desert dust hazards is relatively sparse, despite a policy framework for sand and dust storms being developed by the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in 2017
Summary
Desert dust has numerous wide-ranging impacts on the Earth system and on human society both within the world’s deserts and semi-deserts, where most dust storms originate, and beyond the drylands due to longrange transport [1, 2]. Other recent resolutions concerning sand and dust storms have been adopted by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (resolution 72/7) and the UN Environment Assembly (resolution 2/21), both in 2016. These resolutions acknowledge that sand and dust storms represent a severe impediment to the sustainable development of affected developing countries and the well-being of their peoples and urge individual countries to address these challenges through relevant policy measures. This paper reviews the ways in which desert dust is related to hazardous conditions experienced by human populations both within drylands and beyond their margins
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