MAPPING THE WORLD’S INLAND SAND DUNES – A PROGRESS REPORT

We are compiling a global digital map of inland sand dune systems worldwide from published and unpublished sources, supplemented by manual digitizing of additional sand seas and dune fields. The digital database is compiled in ArcGIS, allowing mapping at scales from global to local. It contains spatial information on dune fields and sand seas ranging in size from less than 2 sq km to as much as 630,000 sq km. The database includes areas of currently active unvegetated sand seas and dune fields, as well as partially vegetated and vegetated areas of dunes and sand sheets and provides information on dune activity at 0.2° intervals (0.02° for North America). Currently, the database is complete for Africa, Australia, Asia, and South America. We are working on updating our coverage of North America and Europe. Metadata includes dunefield area, centroid coordinates, names, activity status, and major dune type(s).

The availability of a spatial database enables comparison of sand dune occurrence, morphology, and activity status with climatic (e.g. precipitation, potential evapotranspiration, winds), topgraphic, and geologic datasets (e.g. INQUA dune chronologic database) in order to understand boundary conditions and formative processes today and throughout the Quaternary. It is also possible to provide preliminary reconstructions of the extent of dune systems in the past by comparing the distribution of OSL age information with the current extent of active dune systems.