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Water cannot be taken for granted in arid regions. Ancient arid land civilizations have demonstarted remarkable ingenuity in developing and utilizing water supplies.The qanats of Iran, which are underground tunnels that convey water by gravity from aquifiers in the highlands to the ground surface at lower elevations were invented by Persians about 3000 years ago. Water supply problems could be…

The book is one of UNESCO series published under their Arid Zone Research Program. Instead of discussing the geography of deserts a s a whole, the author felt that a more detailed analysis of coastal areas would be more valuable and appropriate. His reason for this is that deserts along coasts are more accessable and are therefore the ones most subject …

The papers were presented at the International Geographical Union Symposium Iraklion (Greece), 19-26 September 1962, as the subject for discussion was land use in semi-arid areas, specialized rural , agricultural and urban development and ever increasing importance of regular water supply as basics for irrigated agriculture, problems of used water and sewage disposal become ever more important…

Although two important publications have already been issued on the plant ecology of arid and semi-arid regions, it has become apparent that a study dealing specifically with medicinal plants of those regions could be expected to be of considerable interest both to botanists and to pharmacologists; apart from its scientific value, it can provide invaluable indications of the directions in which…

The problem of the arid zones can be summed by the following comparison: whereas cultivated land represents barely one-tenth of the land surface of the globe, the arid and semi-arid areas cover more than one-third. In other words for each acre of cultivated land there are three or four acres that are practically unused by man because they are desert or covered with sparse vegetation. The…

UNESCO commissioned eight scientists to study and report on current research on this subject. Last April, an international symposium of scientists met at Ankara, to discuss their findings. The results will provide research workers with the first comprehensive picture of what is being done to find out how underground water behaves, and the possibilities of using effectively in arid zones. …