Environmental management and development in drylands

Many important areas of the world, including such key areas as the south western United States, large parts of Israel, most of Australia and virtually all the Arab Gulf countries, together with much of northern Africa, can be classi fied as drylands or arid zones. Environ mental management in these areas is extremely important in order to conserve and use resources in the best possible way. Misuse of resources, as has repeat edly happened in the past, can often have severe deleterious consequences with long-term implications. This book examines the drylands of the world and their management. It begins by describ ing drylands in a systematic way, by assessing the way human societies have evolved in response to the harsh and demanding nature of the physical land Iscape and by classifying the different human uses of drylands. It goes on to present detailed case studies of the human management of drylands, illus trating the different kinds of manage ment adopted for different purposes, and contrasting the different approaches in different parts of the world. It includes case studies of dryland urban areas, a topic which has hitherto been much neglected and which is becoming in creasingly important with the rapid growth of many dryland urban areas. The book concludes by assessing the likely future of drylands.