Economic Plants, and Arid and Semi-Arid Lands of the World

Author(s):  
Gerald E. Wickens
Keyword(s):  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald Green ◽  
◽  
F. Paul Bertetti ◽  
Beth Fratesi ◽  
Nathaniel J. Toll

2008 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
ARIASTER B. CHIMELI ◽  
FRANCISCO DE ASSIS DE SOUZA FILHO ◽  
MARCOS COSTA HOLANDA ◽  
FRANCIS CARLO PETTERINI

ABSTRACTA number of studies show that climatic shocks have significant economic impacts in several regions of the world, especially in, but not limited to, developing economies. In this paper we focus on a drought-related indicator of well-being and emergency spending in the Brazilian semi-arid zone – rainfed corn market – and estimate aggregate behavioral and forecast models for this market conditional on local climate determinants. We find encouraging evidence that our approach can help policy makers buy time to help them prepare for drought mitigating actions. The analysis is applicable to economies elsewhere in the world and climatic impacts other than those caused by droughts.


2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 223-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lee Jones ◽  
Vanessa Banks ◽  
Ian Jefferson

AbstractSwelling and shrinking soils are soils that can experience large changes in volume due to changes in water content. This may be due to seasonal changes in moisture content, local site changes such as leakage from water supply pipes or drains, changes to surface drainage and landscaping, or following the planting, removal or severe pruning of trees or hedges. These soils represent a significant hazard to structural engineers across the world due to their shrink–swell behaviour, with the cost of mitigation alone running into several billion pounds annually. These soils usually contain some form of clay mineral, such as smectite or vermiculite, and can be found in humid and arid/semi-arid environments where their expansive nature can cause significant damage to properties and infrastructure. This chapter discusses the properties and costs associated with shrink–swell soils, their formation and distribution throughout the UK and the rest of the world, and their geological and geotechnical characterization. It also considers the mechanisms of shrink-swell soils and their behaviour, reviewing strategies for managing them in an engineering context, before finally outlining the problem of trees and shrink–swell soils.


2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (10) ◽  
pp. 21
Author(s):  
Abdihafid Abdullahi Yarow ◽  
Shadrack Jirma ◽  
Elijah Siringi

The 2010 Constitution provides a legal framework that guarantees an all-inclusive rights-based approach to health service delivery to Kenyans. It provides that Kenyans are entitled to the highest attainable standards of health, which includes the right to healthcare services including reproductive health care (Article 43). The purpose of this study was to investigate the the extent to which management of devolved health services influence health-care service delivery in Arid and Semi-Arid Lands in Kenya. This study was guided by fiscal decentralization theory and theory of performance improvement, as well as sequential theory of decentralization. This study used a triangulation of both positivism and phenomenology. The population under this study constitute the Sub-Counties in ASAL in Kenya with a sample size of 89 Sub-Counties being sampled and 3 patients from each of the 89 sampled sub counties. This study found that, since the onset of devolution, there has been introduction of more healthcare facilities at counties in ASAL resulting with sub-county leaderships have been largely considering the opinions raised by the residents while implementing health services decisions. Management of devolved health services, healthcare has greatly made health facilities and services more accessible to residents compared to before with the previous five years recording great improvement in the quality of the health services at county health centers. The national government should therefore consider increasing financial resources to counties, which would eventually enhance health manpower for better service delivery. This study therefore recommends that the hospitals management should come up with strategies that can help improve financial resources to fund facilities improvement.


2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Veena Joshi ◽  
Nilesh Susware ◽  
Debasree Sinha

USLE (Universal Soil Loss Equation) is the original and the most widely accepted soil loss estimation technique till date which has evolved from a design tool for conservation planning to a research methodology all across the globe. The equation has been revised and modified over the years and became a foundation for several new soil loss models developed all around the world. The equation has been revised as RUSLE by Renard et al. (1991) and is computed in GIS environment. The Revised equation is landuse independent which makes it a useful technique to apply in a variety of environment. The present paper is an attempt to estimate soil loss from a semi-arid watershed in Western Deccan, India by employing RUSLE. The region is a rocky terrain and sediments are restricted to only a few localities. The result indicates that the region is at the threshold of soil tolerance limit.


2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
pp. 1278-1286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Larry W. Mays

There are many people on Earth today that live with severe water shortages and severe lack of sanitation, particularly among the poor. These people for the most part do not understand the knowledge base of methodologies of harvesting and conveying water and sanitation methods that have been around for thousands of years. A survey of ancient water technologies used in semi-arid and arid regions is presented in this paper. The survey will include methodologies used by Mesopotamians, the Persians, the Egyptians, and the Nabataeans. The attempt here is to explore how these traditional methods developed by the ancients in semi-arid and arid regions of the world could possibly be used to help solve the present-day water resources sustainability problems, especially in developing parts of the world. The advantages of the traditional knowledge of ancient water technologies are explored with the goal of determining ways to help poor people with water shortages and sanitation.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noelia Garcia-Franco ◽  
Martin Wiesmeier ◽  
Luis Carlos Colocho Hurtarte ◽  
Franziska Fella ◽  
María Martínez-Mena ◽  
...  

<p>Arid and semiarid regions represent about 47% of the total land area of the world and around 40% of the world’s food is produced there. In these areas, soil salinization is an emerging problem due to unsustainable land management practices and climate change. However, the use of sustainable land management practices in salt-affected soils can offset the negative effects of salinization and increase soil carbon stocks. In a Citrus tree orchard under semi-arid climate conditions, we evaluated the effect of (i) intensive tillage along with flood irrigation (IT); (ii) combination of no-tillage with pruning residues (branches and leaves) as mulch, and drip-irrigation (NT+PM); and (iii) combination of reduced tillage with the incorporation of pruning residues and drip-irrigation (RT+PI), on aggregate stability, amount and quality of organic matter fractions and soil organic carbon (OC) sequestration. Our results showed that the incorporation of pruning residues through reduced tillage decreased bulk density and salinity while soil porosity, soil OC and N stocks, and percentage of OC-rich macroaggregates increased compared to the IT system.  However, the positive effects of the NT+PM system on soil properties were limited to the topsoil. The IT management system showed the highest values of bulk density and salinity and lower amounts of macroaggregates and soil OC stocks. In conclusion, the combination of pruning residues through the reduced tillage and drip-irrigation was the most effective systems to improve soil structure and OC sequestration and reduced the salt content under Citrus tree orchard in semi-arid soils</p>


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