Arid Land Systems: Sciences and Societies
- MDPI - Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute 2019
- 1 electronic resource (380 p.)
Open Access
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. 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, agro-pastoral rangeland use, drought and disaster and resource extraction reflect land interactions. Contemporary themes of food security, conflict, and conservation are interlinked in arid environments. This book unifies desert science, arid environments, and dryland development. The chapters identify land dynamics, address system risks and delineate human functions through original research in arid zones. Mixed methodologies highlight the vital links between social and environmental science in global deserts. The book engages with today's topical themes and presents novel analyses of arid land systems and societies.
regeneration drylands invasive vine riparian ecosystems Kazakhstan Mongolian grassland human health charisma water rights political ecology the Hovmoller diagram Mongolia common-pool resource desertification afforestation continuous grazing arid area tamarind age land use change mountains of Central Asia soil carbon storage social movements case study of nomadic and settlement grazing system Afar protest social–ecological systems Central Asia Asian dust subarctic agriculture Jordan River Basin conservation protected areas water productivity national parks disturbance dryland increase of growing season Sanjiangyuan region policy implementation partnerships snow index global carbon balance dust storm emission Jordan One Belt local farming decoupling water security environmental impacts groundwater Kashgar Region Gobi Palestine degrading property rights One Road aerodynamic roughness Israel desert fodder demand spatial migration model vegetation survey agricultural water intensity dry lake beds LUCC communal rangelands subversive clientelism Tibetan Plateau ecotone river basin development livestock environmental justice computational fluid dynamics Japan remote sensing climate hazard mining Chobe modelling sustainable livelihoods water pastoralism environmental regime shift erosion institutional change Gobi desert of Mongolia Cuchillas de la Zarca non-linear change Ethiopia cross correlation analysis farming at its limits absence New Silk Road drag partition cellular automata agriculture China SPOT VGT grass height co-management Belt and Road Initiative wind erosion modelling Kyrgyzstan KAZA dust storm outbreak coverage desert reclamation nomadic pastoralism fodder supply soil quality index vegetation response to precipitation driving forces grassland degradation environment Nyangatom rotational grazing drought Asia infrastructure Southern Africa Gobi Desert region Sonoran desert South Omo arid region land cover/land use drip irrigation risk air temperature increase the Shiyang River Basin forest resources landscape ecosystem services Greenland economic valuation