A GIS FOR DESERT LOCUST FORECASTING AND MONITORING

Desert locust plagues can affect up to 20 per cent of the surface of t he Earth. Data on locust breeding, environmental conditions and swarm movements in affected countries, are collected at the headquarters of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome. GIS technology cou pled with remote sensing inputs allows these data to be utilised for m onitoring and forecasting purposes much more effectively than heretofo re. Design requirements and the implementation strategy for such a GIS are examined, emphasizing the role of global digital map datasets suc h as the Digital Chart of the World, the importance of effective data integration and the need for an ergonomic user interface that facilita tes both data capture and analysis.