Desert Development

The fact that approximately one-third of the world's land mass is arid desert may be congenial for the camel and the cactus, but not for people. Nevertheless, well over half a billion people, or 15% of the world's population live in arid desert areas. If the world's population were distributed evenly over the land surface, we would expect to find about 30% of the population inhabiting arid desert areas. Does the fact that 'only' 15% of the world's population live in an arid desert environment reflect the harshness of the environment? Or is it a testimony to the adaptability and ingenuity of mankind? Do we view the glass as half-full? Or half-empty? The contributors to Desert Development: Man and Technology in Sparselands adopt the position that the cup is half-full and, in fact, could be filled much more. Indeed, many arid desert zones do thrive with life, and given appropriate technological develop ment, such areas could support even greater popUlations. While the dire Malthusian prediction that rapid world population growth exceeds the carrying capacity of existent resource systems has gained popularity (typified by the 1972 Club of Rome book, Limits to Growth), there is a growing body of serious work which rejects such pessimistic 'depletion' models, in favor of models which are mildly optimistic.

I: Viewpoints.- Arid Zone Development: An Appraisal towards the End of the Twentieth Century.- Social Theory Environmental Degradation.- The Political Burden of Spareseland Development: Some International Consistencies.- II: The Built Environment.- From Preconceived to Responsive Planning: Cases of Settlement Design in Arid Environments.- Planning for Comfort in Hot Dry Climatic Regions.- Desert Architecture - The Architecture of the Extremes.- III: Provision of Services in Sparselands.- The Provision of Public Transit Services in the Arid Environment.- Health Services in Sparsely Settled Areas.- Delivering Essential Public Services to Arid Zone Nomads.- High Technology Alternatives for Educational Systems in Sparsely Settled Zones: The Case of the IsraeliDesert.- IV: High Technology In Desert Areas.- Desert Agriculture - Past and Future.- Desert Dune Sand and Its Potential for Modern Agricultural Development.- Remote Sensing for Arid Zone Development.- Potential Impacts of Telecommunications on the Economic Activities in Sparsely Populated Regions.- V: Economic Potential and Development.- The Development of Sparsely Populated Arid Regions: An Integrative Analysis with Application to the Negev.- The Dynamics of Agricultural Development in Sparsely Populated Areas: The Case of the Arava.- Development of Tourism Resort Areas in Arid Regions.- VI: Towards The Future.- New Frontiers in Desert Research.- About the Authors.