California Deserts: A Report on Sustainable Development Goals
The California deserts comprise a popular tourist destination with stunning natural features and recreational development.
It offer unique ecosystems and habitats, a social group and historic “Old West” array of legends, districts, and settlements. Eastern Southern California, in the Western United States, is home to all of the desserts listed below.
Due to the mountain ranges to the west casting a rain shadow, the desert region of California experiences minimal rainfall. Joshua trees in Joshua tree national park, sand dunes, canyons, mountains, and miles of cracked, dry dirt create a setting that gives outdoor photographers plenty.
The California desert region offers fantastic locations for hiking, rock climbing and bouldering, sightseeing, and other leisure activities, depending on the time of year and season.
3 California Deserts:
- The Mojave Desert
- The Colorado Desert
- The Great Basin Desert
1. The Mojave Desert:
The Mojave Desert, one of California’s deserts, is a region of about 50,000 square miles (124,000 km2) of arid land that occupies much of the state’s southeast and stretches into Nevada, Utah, and Arizona. It is the best protection of the large deserts and has crucial biological importance.
The Great Basin, the Sierra Nevada, the California Montane Chaparral and Woodlands, the Colorado Plateau, the Arizona Mountain Forests, and the Sonoran Desert form its northern, western, eastern, and southern borders, respectively.
1. Mojave National Preserve:
With its wide size, canyons, mountains, ex-military mines and outposts, volcanic formations, and enormous sand dunes, the Mojave National Preserve provides tourists with year-round exploration opportunities. A rich mosaic of biological habitats and a 10,000-year human history of interaction with the desert are both preserved in the Mojave.
2. Death Valley National Park:
Death Valley borders the Great Basin Desert in Eastern California’s the Mojave Desert. The Death Valley is among the hottest regions on Earth in the summer, along with deserts in the Middle East and the Sahara. One of the highlights of California’s Death Valley National Park is Mesquite Dunes.
3. Mitchell Caverns:
At the height of 4300 feet, Mitchell Caverns is a grouping of three limestone caves, only two of which are accessible to the general public. The Caverns have 41% humidity and a temperature of about 73 °F (9 °C).
4. The Trona Pinnacles:
More than 500 spires of various sizes, shapes, and heights make up this amazing environment. Some of the spires reach over 140 feet (43 m).
5. Red Rock Canyon State Park:
Red Rock Canyon State Park is a picturesque location where you may observe desert cliffs, buttes, and stunning rock formations. The colourful rock formations enhance the park’s distinctive beauty, making it a photographer’s paradise.
6. Mojave Trails National Monument:
Old lava flows, gorgeous sand dunes, and mountain ranges can all be found in this monument. The well-known Amboy Crater and some of the best-preserved sites from the Desert Training Center from World War II are also nearby.
7. Castle Mountains National Monument:
This national monument’s 21,000 acres (8500 ha) are home to Joshua trees (especially found in Joshua tree national park), mountains, desert grasslands, wildlife, and other desert elements. The area has a long human history.
2. Great Basin Desert:
The Great Basin Desert is the largest desert in the United States and is located in the Great Basin between the Sierra Nevada and the Wasatch Range. It is one of the California deserts. Out of all the California Deserts, the Great Basin Desert is the only “cold” desert in the nation where snow makes up most of the precipitation.
A location is considered a desert if it receives less precipitation than 10 inches (25 cm) annually. The Great Basin Desert receives an average of 7 to 12 inches of precipitation per year, which is greater than other deserts.
The Sierra Nevada Range, the Rocky Mountains, the Columbia Plateau, the Mojave and Sonoran deserts, and other arid regions form the western and eastern boundaries of the 190,000 square miles Great Basin Desert.
The “rain shadow effect” produced by the eastern Californian Sierra Nevada Mountains is what gives rise to the Great Basin Desert. The air cools and loses most of its moisture as rain when the Pacific Ocean’s dominant winds climb to cross the Sierra.
The winds are extremely dry when they cross over the mountains and sweep down the opposite side, so they take moisture from the surroundings. The Great Basin Desert was formed as a result of this drying action. The desert reaches eastern California and covers a sizable area of Nevada and Utah.
The Sierra Nevada in eastern California is where the Great Basin Desert climate starts. This mountain range, which rises 14,300 metres (4,300 feet) above sea level, creates a significant rain shadow over the desert.
As it is driven up and over the steep mountains, weather coming in from the Pacific Ocean swiftly loses its moisture as rain and snow. There isn’t much precipitation left to convey to the desert by the time it reaches the east side of the mountains.
With annual precipitation in the Great Basin Desert averaging 9 inches (230 mm) in the west and 12 inches (300 mm) east, the rain shadow effect is more severe closer to the Sierra Nevada. The moisture that does
SDGs, Targets, and Indicators
SDGs Addressed or Connected to the Issues Highlighted in the Article:
- SDG 15: Life on Land
- SDG 13: Climate Action
- SDG 14: Life Below Water
Specific Targets Based on the Article’s Content:
- Target 15.1: By 2020, ensure the conservation, restoration, and sustainable use of terrestrial and inland freshwater ecosystems and their services, in particular forests, wetlands, mountains, and drylands, in line with obligations under international agreements.
- Target 13.3: Improve education, awareness-raising, and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction, and early warning.
- Target 14.2: By 2020, sustainably manage and protect marine and coastal ecosystems to avoid significant adverse impacts, including by strengthening their resilience, and take action for their restoration to achieve healthy and productive oceans.
Indicators Mentioned or Implied in the Article:
- Indicator 15.1.1: Forest area as a proportion of total land area
- Indicator 13.3.1: Number of countries that have communicated the strengthening of institutional, systemic, and individual capacity-building to implement adaptation, mitigation, and technology transfer
- Indicator 14.2.1: Proportion of national exclusive economic zones managed using ecosystem-based approaches
Table: SDGs, Targets, and Indicators
| SDGs | Targets | Indicators |
|---|---|---|
| SDG 15: Life on Land | Target 15.1: By 2020, ensure the conservation, restoration, and sustainable use of terrestrial and inland freshwater ecosystems and their services, in particular forests, wetlands, mountains, and drylands, in line with obligations under international agreements. | Indicator 15.1.1: Forest area as a proportion of total land area |
| SDG 13: Climate Action | Target 13.3: Improve education, awareness-raising, and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction, and early warning. | Indicator 13.3.1: Number of countries that have communicated the strengthening of institutional, systemic, and individual capacity-building to implement adaptation, mitigation, and technology transfer |
| SDG 14: Life Below Water | Target 14.2: By 2020, sustainably manage and protect marine and coastal ecosystems to avoid significant adverse impacts, including by strengthening their resilience, and take action for their restoration to achieve healthy and productive oceans. | Indicator 14.2.1: Proportion of national exclusive economic zones managed using ecosystem-based approaches |
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Fuente: usatales.com
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