The importance of Statistics and Statistic Analysis / a workshop in ACSAD
In the presence of Mr. Bilal Al-Hayek, the representative of the Minister of Local Administration and Environment; the Arab Center for the Studies of Arid Zones and Drylands ACSAD held a workshop at its headquarter today on the “Importance of Statistics and Statistic analysis in the Agriculture and Training Field on Using Modern Statistic Programs (SPSS) in the Field of Estimating and Evaluating Land Degradation”; for the benefit of several trainees from the Ministry of Local Administration and Environment.
His Excellency, Dr. Nasr Edin Obaid, the Director-General of the Arab Center for the Studies of Arid Zones and Drylands, said in a speech during the course opening that this particular training course for statistical analysis of the national indicators of land degradation and desertification, which are implementing within the cooperation frame between the Arab Center ACSAD and the Ministry of Local Administration and Environment. It aimed to build capacities and train the work team of desertification and land degradation indicators project, highlighting the importance of statistics and statistical analysis in monitoring land degradation and desertification, evaluating it and using the modern programs (SPSS) in this field.
He also expressed his hope to reach the desirable results from this course by creating a national cadre for the Ministry of Local Administration and Environment that is able to deal with the field data and analyze it in order to support the transitional projects in the national program of neutralizing land degradation, to implement the national plan projects of combatting desertification, as well as adopting the land degradation indicators in Reconstruction strategies in Syria.
Dr. Obaid indicated that the Arab Center, as an Arab House of expertise, implemented plenty of workshops and specialized training courses in the applied and scientific land sciences during its long scientific career. Many researchers and technicians participated in them. The training was done on the newest programs related to remote sensing technologies and geographic information systems and their various applications, especially in monitoring desertification and drought. The Center currently adopts scientific methodology to monitor dust storms and limit them by integrating remote sensing technologies and traditional means.
He clarified that all monitoring and combatting desertification projects implementing by ACSAD have positive results. The most important of which is the decline of the erosion process, the reduction of the missing soil amount by erosion, limitation, and fixation of dunes movement; significant positive development in vegetation has been reflected in the increase of the plant diversity, resurgence of endangered plants, the limitation of sand and dust storms blow from the hot areas. This has had a positive environmental healthy economic impact on the local people, public facilities, agricultural and pastoral lands, and the return of wildlife and biodiversity to areas under development.
At the end of his speech, Dr. Obaid affirmed that this training course is only a continuation of ACSAD Organization activities to spread awareness of the dangers associated with desertification and land degradation phenomena, building capacities for the participated technicians and workers in monitoring combatting desertification. It is also a complement to the severe outstanding work done by ACSAD to preserving the natural resources through its accumulative and various expertise, some of which land sustainable management, water use rationalization, deriving crop varieties resilient to drought, fruit trees tolerant to environmental stresses, in addition to restoring degraded lands and mitigating adverse drought impacts and climate changes.
In his turn, Mr. Al-Hayek praised the fruitful and constructed cooperation between the Ministry of Local Administration and Environment and ACSAD, especially in the fields of training, preparing cadres in scientific and methodological ways, where ACSAD gained through many years of constant hard work as it is an Arab house of expertise. He added that ACSAD Organization proved its rootage and vitality by activating the cooperation between itself, different Ministries, research and studies’ centers in Syria and the Arab countries, particularly under the unjust embargo on Syria. He praised the clear progress witnessed by ACSAD under its current administration represented by its Director-General, His Excellency, Dr. Nasr Edin Obaid.
The timetable of the eight days includes the identification of statistical analysis (SPSS), the identification of files and outputs types in the statistical analysis program, familiarizing with the details of the data analyzer screen, and how the questionnaire data entry, the graphic presentation of the statistical variables, and how the graphs and charts are conducted as well. It also includes how to run frequency and cross-tabulation, how the Data normal distribution table is done, the statistical hypotheses tests, and one-way and two-way analysis of variance.
