"Arid Land Systems Sciences and Societies: Potential for Enhanced Water Decoupling - HILMI S. SALEm

What is it about?

ABSTRACT: Preface to ”Arid Land Systems” Understanding deserts and drylands is essential, as arid landscapes cover >40% of the Earth and are home to two billion people. Today’s problematic environment–human interaction needs contemporary knowledge to address dryland complexity. Physical dimensions in arid zones—land systems, climate and hazards, ecology—are linked with social processes that directly impact drylands, such as land management, livelihoods, and development. The challenges require integrated research that identifies systemic drivers across global arid regions. This book, based on a Special Issue in the journal Land, unifies desert science, arid environments, and development. Chapters identify land dynamics, address system risks and delineate human functions through original research in dryland regions. Measurement and monitoring, field investigation, remote sensing, and data analysis are effective tools to investigate natural dynamics. Equally, inquiry into how policy and practice affect landscape sustainability is key to mitigating detrimental activity in deserts. Relations between socio-economic forces and degradation, ethnologies, agro-pastoral rangeland use, drought and disaster and resource extraction reflect land interactions. Contemporary themes of development and transition, food security, conflict and conservation are interlinked in arid environments. Through knowledge, documentation and evaluation, the book links academic disciplines to convey the complexities and possibilities existing across drylands. The chapters draw together a great variety of global drylands. Research explores the Gobi Desert and China, Central Asia and the Middle East, as well as multiple African dimensions and Latin America. The aim is to understand the essential themes that arid and semi-arid regions encounter and engage with today. This interdisciplinary study reflects the vital links between social and environmental science in global deserts. Using mixed methodologies and varied techniques, the original work stresses today’s topical themes to present novel analyses. The book offers much to dryland researchers, stakeholders and importantly, policy makers, who shape the world’s vast desert landscapes. Troy Sternberg, Ariell Ahearn Special Issue Editors. FOR CITATION: Michael Gilmont, Lara Nassar, Steve Rayner, Nadav Tal, Erica Harper, and Hilmi S. Salem. 2019. The Potential for Enhanced Water Decoupling in the Jordan Basin through Regional Agricultural. Best Practice (PP: 152-171 ). In:Troy Sternberg and Ariell Ahearn (Eds.), "Arid Land Systems Sciences and Societies," MDPI, Switzerland. 380 P. ISBN 978-3-03921-347-4 (Pbk) - ISBN 978-3-03921-348-1 (PDF).

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Photo by Cristina Gottardi on Unsplash

Photo by Cristina Gottardi on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Based on the fact that this book covers several regions across the world, the aim of the book is to understand the essential themes that arid and semi-arid regions encounter and engage with today. This books that deals with inter- and multi-disciplinary issues reflects the vital links between social and environmental science in arid and semi-arid regions globally.

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