Desertification has re-emerged as a topic of global significance as a consequence of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. When first addressed over a generation ago, attention was drawn to the compelling, spectacular images of sand dunes engulfing farmlands and parched cattle dying around wells. Research tended to focus on these events as unusual phenomena that involved the unfortunate collision of climate and `irrational' land use.

Since then, the work of many researchers has shown us that desertification is a multifaceted problem that involves climatic, biogeochemical, political, and socio-economic processes that operate more or less continuously but at rates that vary in time and space. No attempts to arrest or reverse desertification that ignore this complexity are likely to succeed.

In a single volume, `Desertification in Developed Countries' describes the multiple dimensions of desertification as well as the novel approaches that have been used to address it within the economies of developed countries.
Proceedings of the International Symposium and Workshop on Desertification in Developed Countries: Why Can't We Control It?, held in Tucson, Arizona, U.S.A., 24-29 October 1994

Introduction; D.A. Mouat, et al. Effect of Mediterranean Shrub on Water Erosion Control; V. Andreu, et al. Secondary Desertification Due to Salinization of Intensively Irrigated Lands: The Israeli Experience; A. Banin, A. Fish. Surface Disturbances: Their Role in Accelerating Desertification; J. Belnap. A Hierarchical Approach for Desertification Assessment; G. Bergkamp. Properties and Erosional Response of Soils in a Degraded Ecosystem in Crete (Greece); C. Boix, et al. Identification and Observation of Desertification Processes with the Aid of Measurements from Space: Results from the European Field Experiment in Desertification-Threatened Areas (EFEDA); H.-J. Bolle. Where, Why and to What Extent Have Rangelands in the Karoo, South Africa, Desertified; W.R.J. Dean, et al. Desertification Control: A Framework for Action; H.E. Dregne. Policy Roots of Land Degradation in the Arid Region of the United States: An Overview; K. Hess, J.L. Holechek. Use of Earth Observation Satellite Data for Land Degradation Mapping and Monitoring in Mediterranean Ecosystems: Towards a Satellite-Observatory; J. Hill, et al. Desertification of the Eastern Karoo, South Africa: Conflicting Paleoecological, Historical, and Soil Isotopic Evidence; M.T. Hoffman, et al. Government Policy Influences on Rangeland Conditions in the United States: A Case Example; J.L. Holechek, K. Hess. Integrated Response Plot Designs for Indicators of Desertification; R.O. Kuehl, et al. Desertification of Subtropical Thicket in the Eastern Cape, South Africa: Are There Alternatives? G.I.H. Kerley, et al. Desertification in Australia: An Eye to Grass Roots and Landscapes; J.A. Ludwig, D.J. Tongway. Regional Landscape-Ecological Planning and Desertification Control in Arid Regions of the Commonwealth of Independent States; E.V. Milanova. South Africa's Arid and Semiarid Rangelands: Why Are They Changing and Can They Be Restored? S.J. Milton, W.R.J. Dean. Impact of Desertification on Temperature Trends in the Middle East; H.A. Nasrallah, R.C. Balling. Satellite Monitoring of Desert Plant Community Response to Moisture Availability; A.J. Peters, M.D. Eve. Implications of the Disintegration of the Former Soviet Union for Desertification Control; T.A. Saiko. Monitoring Soil Productive Potential; D. Tongway. Persistence of Desertified Ecosystems: Explanations and Implications; W.G. Whitford, et al. A Field Study of the Influence of Land Management and Soil Properties on Runoff and Soil Loss in Central Spain; A.G. Williams, et al. Desertification in Russia: Problems and Solutions (an Example in the Republic of Kalmykia-Khalmg Tangh); I.S. Zonn.