A Conceptual Geographic Information System Development Using Remote Sensing and Conventional Data Collection for Sustainable Arid Land Developments

Sustainable development is a development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Sustainable development issues are one of the essential objectives of nations worldwide to safeguard land, water, air, natural resources, and habitats, for the future generation's environment to live and prosper. The population growth and economic development invariably have put pressure on land-use changes, which threatens to impact the ambient environment worldwide and significantly further degrade the populated semiarid zone desert's environment, ecology, and its habitats. Furthermore, over-farming, overgrazing, over-population on meagerly available fertile lands, coupled with faster soil erosion and climate changes have caused severe desertification of the semiarid regions. The combination of remote sensing (RS) image analysis and conventional data collection input through a centralized geographic information system (GIS) databank has a wide range of applications, including the arid zone natural resources development for sustainable management. In general, this paper highlights the importance of various types of data collection and analysis through RS and GIS techniques to achieve a robust and sustainable development of arid zones. It also proposes a conceptual design for the Desert Climatic National-Natural Resources Inventory System DCN-NRIS.