Preface

A Regional Workshop on Land Resources Information Systems in the Near East was held in Cairo, Egypt, 3 to 7 September 2001. The meeting was organized by FAO Land and Water Development Division (AGL) and Near East Regional Office, in cooperation with Egypt's Executive Authority for Land Improvement Projects (EALIP), Cairo.

The purpose of the meeting was to promote Land Resources Information Systems and their application in the assessment, mapping and monitoring of land in relation to food security and sustainable development in the Near East countries. The workshop was attended by 11 countries of the Region and four Regional Organizations - Arab Organization for Agricultural Development (AOAD), United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), League of Arab States, and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Regional Office, Bahrain. Developments in Land and Water Information Systems, preparation of national/regional land and water reports and future collaboration in the AGL Gateway global network were discussed.

The resources persons contributed by sharing their experiences from their respective countries and organizations and assisted in the preparation of the plan of action to promote future reporting and exchange of information in the region. Preliminary country reports on the state of land, water and plant nutrient resources based on the Gateway guidelines and checklist were presented and discussed. A plan of action was established to finalize the country reports. The reports will be available on-line in the Gateway web page in due course.

The meeting recommended the translation into Arabic of the AGL multilingual soil database software for Windows (SDBm) for distribution and use by soil and land management institutions in the region. The meeting also recommended the preparation of a regional project on capacity building for the application of LRIS systems in drought mitigation programmes in the region.

Acknowledgements

This report was compiled by Mr S. Masui and Mr Jacques Antoine and edited by Mr R. Brinkman. Thanks are offered to the persons who made valuable contributions to the workshop report, particularly Mr G. Hamdallah and Mr M. Gomaa.

Acronyms

AEZ	Agro-ecological Zoning
AGL	Land and Water Development Division, FAO
ALES	Automated Land Evaluation System
AOAD	Arab Organization for Agricultural Development
APT	Agricultural Planning Tools
CDE	Centre for Development and Environment, University of Bern
ESCWA	United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia
DEM	Digital Elevation Model
EALIP	Executive Authority for Land Improvement Projects, Egypt
FAO	Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
GIS	Geographic Information System
LRI	Land Resource Inventory
LRIS	Land Resource Information Systems
LWRIS	Land and Water Resources Information Systems
MNRAUP	Mapping of Natural Resources for Agricultural Use and Planning
MCMA	Multi-Criteria Model Analysis
NSWA	National Sewerage and Water Authority, Egypt
RNE	FAO Regional Office for the Near East
SARD	Sustainable Agricultural and Rural Development
SDBM plus	Multilingual Soil Database software
SOTER	Soils and Terrain Database
TCP	Technical Cooperation Programme, FAO
UNDP	United Nations Environment Programme
WAICENT	World Agricultural Information Centre, FAO
WOCAT	World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies