A Recent and Systematic Review on Water Extraction from the Atmosphere for Arid Zones

Water is essential for food security, industrial output, ecological sustainability, and a country’s socioeconomic progress. Water scarcity and environmental concerns have increased globally in recent years as a result of the ever-increasing population, rapid industrialization and urbanization, and poor water resource management. Even though there are sufficient water resources, their uneven circulation leads to shortages and the requirement for portable fresh water. More than two billion people live in water-stressed areas. Hence, the present study covers all of the research based on water extraction from atmospheric air, including theoretical and practical (different experimental methods) research. A comparison between different results is made. The calculated efficiency of the systems used to extract water from atmospheric air by simulating the governing equations is discussed. The effects of different limitations, which affect and enhance the collectors’ efficiency, are studied. This research article will be very useful to society and will support further research on the extraction of water in arid zones.

Agro-Fruit-Forest Systems Based on Argan Tree in Morocco: A Review of Recent Results

The argan tree, Argania spinosa (L.) Skeels, is a horticultural forestry species characterized by its endemicity and adaptation to arid and semi-arid zones in the southwest of Morocco. Despite its limited geographical distribution, argan tree presents large genetic diversity, suggesting that improvement of argan is possible. This species plays important ecological, and socioeconomic roles in the sustainable development of the country. The integration of arganiculture into Moroccan agricultural policy has been implemented through a sector strategy, which is fully aligned with the conservation and regeneration of argan forest. A. spinosa is suitable for incorporation into different agroforestry productive systems under agro-fruit-forest model and its domestication will provide a powerful means of socio-economic and environmental management. Here, we provide an overview of the argan tree literature and highlight the specific aspects of argan stands, as agro-forest systems, with the aim of developing an adequate strategy of conservation and domestication of this species. We introduce promising programs and projects for argan plantations and arganiculture, which have been adopted to relieve anthropogenic pressure on the natural argan forest.

Monitoring Oasis Cotton Fields Expansion in Arid Zones Using the Google Earth Engine: A Case Study in the Ogan-Kucha River Oasis, Xinjiang, China

Rapid and accurate mapping of the spatial distribution of cotton fields is helpful to ensure safe production of cotton fields and the rationalization of land-resource planning. As cotton is an important economic pillar in Xinjiang, accurate and efficient mapping of cotton fields helps the implementation of rural revitalization strategy in Xinjiang region. In this paper, based on the Google Earth Engine cloud computing platform, we use a random forest machine-learning algorithm to classify Landsat 5 and 8 and Sentinel 2 satellite images to obtain the spatial distribution characteristics of cotton fields in 2011, 2015 and 2020 in the Ogan-Kucha River oasis, Xinjiang. Unlike previous studies, the mulching process was considered when using cotton field phenology information as a classification feature. The results show that both Landsat 5, Landsat 8 and Sentinel 2 satellites can successfully classify cotton field information when the mulching process is considered, but Sentinel 2 satellite classification results have the best user accuracy of 0.947. Sentinel 2 images can distinguish some cotton fields from roads well because they have higher spatial resolution than Landsat 8. After the cotton fields were mulched, there was a significant increase in spectral reflectance in the visible, red-edge and near-infrared bands, and a decrease in the short-wave infrared band. The increase in the area of oasis cotton fields and the extensive use of mulched drip-irrigation water saving facilities may lead to a decrease in the groundwater level. Overall, the use of mulch as a phenological feature for classification mapping is a good indicator in cotton-growing areas covered by mulch, and mulch drip irrigation may lead to a decrease in groundwater levels in oases in arid areas.

Monitoring and Modeling of Saline-Sodic Vertisol Reclamation by Echinochloa stagnina

Soil salinity due to irrigation is a major constraint to agriculture, particularly in arid and semi-arid zones, due to water scarcity and high evaporation rates. Reducing salinity is a fundamental objective for protecting the soil and supporting agricultural production. The present study aimed to empirically measure and simulate with a model, the reduction in soil salinity in a Vertisol by the cultivation and irrigation of Echinochloa stagnina. Laboratory soil column experiments were conducted to test three treatments: (i) ponded bare soil without crops, (ii) ponded soil cultivated with E. stagnina in two successive cropping seasons and (iii) ponded soil permanently cultivated with E. stagnina with a staggered harvest. After 11 months of E. stagnina growth, the electrical conductivity of soil saturated paste (ECe) decreased by 79–88% in the topsoil layer (0–8 cm) in both soils cultivated with E. stagnina and in bare soil. In contrast, in the deepest soil layer (18–25 cm), the ECe decreased more in soil cultivated with E. stagnina (41–83%) than in bare soil (32–58%). Salt stocks, which were initially similar in the columns, decreased more in soil cultivated with E. stagnina (65–87%) than in bare soil (34–45%). The simulation model Hydrus-1D was used to predict the general trends in soil salinity and compare them to measurements. Both the measurements and model predictions highlighted the contrast between the two cropping seasons: soil salinity decreased slowly during the first cropping season and rapidly during the second cropping season following the intercropping season. Our results also suggested that planting E. stagnina was a promising option for controlling the salinity of saline-sodic Vertisols.

Climate Change Impacts on Biodiversity in Arid and Semi-Arid Areas

Considerable attention has been paid to climate change and its impacts on biodiversity. The climate change has caused several problems such as continuous ecosystem degradation and a resultant biodiversity decline. In addition, climate warming has a range of indirect effects through changes in vegetation type level and sea that affect physical and biological systems. This has also led to changes in the distribution of species, as well as reductions in the size of populations, or even local extinctions of these populations. Moreover, many species are disappearing with time due to climate change combined with the emergence of disease that develops and increases with time. These problems affect different biodiversity components that are close to collapse. This chapter explored the richness of biodiversity in arid and semi-arid zones. It is also illuminates the effects of climate change on distribution of biodiversity. The authors highlight the responses of biodiversity under climate change, in terms of species extinction, biodiversity loss, and the impacts of climate change to ecological tourism. Finally, the authors show how biodiversity can overcome the effect of climate change, by developing some systems that allow to them to survive and conservation of species and ecosystems.

Analysis of rainfall data for water management In dry land zone of Karnataka

Bellary region is characterized as one of the semi-arid zones of Karnataka, having only 508 mm of annual rainfall distributed over 35 rainy days. The ill-distribution of rainfall creates at least 5 drought years in every decade. The average rainfa1l distribution shows that there is a total failure in Kharif season. However, some assured rainfall received during September and October a better prospect which assumes for rabi season .This problem can be overcome to. certain extent by scientific management of crops and water. This calls for detailed analysis of any Important water resources Issues. Keeping this mind, an attempt made in this paper to analysis short and long period rainfall data. The probabilities analysis of. rainfall for shorter periods for identification of suitable periods for sowing, return period analysis for designing of soil and water conservation structures and determining the size of storage structures, the identification of number of Various rainfall events for designing water harvesting system for crop and water management are carried out and presented in this paper.

Mechanisms and possibilities for the emergence of extreme floods in arid zones (Tiznit plain - Morocco): ميكانزمات واحتمالات نشأة الفيضانات المتطرفة بالمناطق الجافة (سهل تزنيت - المغرب)

In Morocco, the dynamics of change in rainfall patterns have been underway for decades. It is characterized by increasingly frequent and violent hydrological and climatic events (floods and droughts). This work aims to study the peculiarities and mechanisms of the appearance of floods in the watershed of the Oudodou wadi (Province of Tiznit - southwestern Morocco) and conduct a frequency analysis of the extreme hydrological events associated with floods to estimate their probabilities and their return periods. In addition to the diagnosis of natural factors in the area studied and their relationship to the emergence of floods, the methodological approach adopted is divided into two stages. The first, known as historical, is based on the study of 8 flooding cases (1942 - 2014) and the delimitation of threatened areas through the representations of residents. The second step focused on analyzing the frequencies of extreme hydrological events to determine their severity and return periods. Analysis of the results showed that flood thresholds are always associated with the strength and concentration of rainfall, giving them a sudden behavior like summer floods. To guide the interventions of actors in the field, the areas threatened by flooding have been identified according to their degrees of severity. The recurrence of the flows was modeled using the GAMMA law which makes it possible to estimate the probability of occurrence of extreme events (floods) and the instantaneous flows corresponding to the return periods of 2, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 years. Biannual and five-year hydrological events correspond to instantaneous flows of 120 and 331 m3/s, while exceptional or even very exceptional cases have a return period of more than 50 and 100 years and correspond to instantaneous flows of 912 and 1035 m3/s.

Inheritance of plant height, straw yield and flag leaf area in MBB x Gaviota durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf.) cross

<p class="042abstractstekst">Plant height, straw mass and flag leaf area are recognized by physiologists as morphological markers of drought stress tolerance. Developing varieties intended for arid and semi-arid zones need to select for these traits. Understanding the genetic control of a given trait helps breeder to handle the segregating populations under study in a more efficient and consistent manner by choosing the best breeding method available to realize significant genetic advance. For this purpose, six generations: parents, F1, F2, BC1, BC2, derived from MBB x ‘Gaviota’ durum wheat (<em>Triticum durum </em>Desf.) cross were grown to investigate the nature of gene action involved in the inheritance pattern of the three traits. The results indicated that the six-parameter model fitted the best the data related to the variability present in the generation means of the studied traits. Generation mean analysis indicated that non-allelic interactions were important factors controlling the expression of these characters with complementary type of gene action governing FLA and STW inheritance. High heritability estimates, moderate to high expected responses to selection, significant genetic correlations with grain yield and greater role of non-additive effects in controlling the inheritance of the three studied traits suggested that breeding methods exploiting both fixable and non-fixable components be applied to break unfavorable linkage and to accumulate useful genes in the base population, followed by mono-trait or index based selection in late advanced generations.</p>