Desertification in jordan pdf

The leading causes of land degradation in Jordan are improper farming practices such as failure to use contour plowing or overcultivation of the land , overgrazing, the conversion of rangelands to croplands in the marginal areas, where rainfall is not enough to support crops in the long term, and uncontrolled expansion of urban and rural settlement at the cost of cultivable land.

Implementation of soil conservation and erosion control measures such as contour plowing, terracing, and stonewall construction on farmer's fields helped in curbing accelerated erosion and in protecting the potential agricultural lands.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF. Skip to main content. This service is more advanced with JavaScript available. Advertisement Hide. Desertification in Jordan A Security Issue. Authors Authors and affiliations Mu'taz Al-Alawi. Conference paper.

Keywords Arid climate desertification Jordan land degradation soil erosion. This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access. Abdelgawad, G. Google Scholar. Abu-Irmaileh, B. It is important to note that the last period of major global warm- ing, which is the end of the last Ice Age, and the last major glo- bal cooling, which is the Younger Dryas, led to dramatic landscape instability in Jordan.

The sediment record indicates massive ero- sion in form of land slides, and possibly strongly reduced vegetation cover. The most likely explanation for this pattern is an increased frequency and intensity of heavy rainfall events. Global warming may not linearly lead to drier or warmer conditions, but to a switch from one climatic equilibrium to another, with a transition phase characterised by extreme and unusual weather. If confronted with instabilities as documented from the end of the Ice Age in the sedi- ment record, it is likely that none of the present land use systems will survive Lucke, But given alone that global warming leads to increasing dryness, a calcification of soils in the area has to be expected.

This could strongly impact the vegetation cover and soil productivity, and will most likely be more threatening than erosion Lucke et al. The only measure to counter calcification might be irrigation. Further research is planned to better understand the time-frames and occurrence of periods of landscape instability, feedbacks between land cover and climate, and to assess whether local or regional forc- ing was behind changes. With regard to present programs of combat- ing desertification, the best strategy seems to prepare for extremely heavy rainstorms and unusual weather.

It is so far not possible to say how land suitability will look like in , but a careful cost-benefit analysis in the light of the environmental history seems imperative before conducting large-scale land recovery programs.

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Dissertation, Depart- ment of Anthropology, University of Toronto. Schmidt, M. Lucke, R. Hutch- eon, The Decapolis region Northern Jordan as historical exam- ple of desertification? Evidence from soil development and distribution.

Re-thinking Policies to Cope with Desertification. Vegetation Dynamics and Land Use in Epirus. In: Mazzoleni, S. Wiley, Chichester, Walmsley, A. Weninger, B. Alram-Stern, E. Bauer, L. Clare, U. Danzeglocke, P. Kubatzki, G. Rollefson and H. Todorova, In: Gronenborn, D. In this Iron oxide ratios pretend intense soil development of the chalk, but CaCO3-con- context, long-term erosion seems not so much a matter of average an- tent, magnetic susceptibility and manganese oxides show clearly how the pale- nual rainfall, but relief.

Soil variations are strongest on the deeply in- osol in Wadi Ziqlab is more developed than the sediments covering it. Basalt Ziq 2 40 cm 63 0,11 0,78 49,7 soils are characterised by a strongly contrasting uniformity. This illus- Ziq 3 70 cm 50 0,35 0,42 ,1 trates that not only the relief, but also the source rock played an im- Ziq 4 cm 45 0,63 0,38 ,8 portant role for the formation of the soils.

The uniformity of the basalt soils might be related to mixing processes that obliterate hori- The additional analysis of air photos and historic travel reports indicates zons as visible in the limestone soils, indicated by the drought cracks that old field patterns can be traced according to remains of field bor- and slickensides.

Even though the deep limestone soils show slicken- ders, and possibly weak differences of soil development, which again in- sides, too, their vertic behaviour seems not so pronounced which dicates that historic desertification in the sense of massive erosion did might be related to different sets of clay minerals LUCKE, Evaluating the descriptions of 19th-cen- tury travel reports, the landscape changed much less in the recent The large-scale pattern repeats in the small scale.

Soil distribution in past than previously assumed. For example, oak forests are still present the Wadi el-Arab supports the conclusion that soil development took where they were reported years ago, and the remains of Byzantine place in a geological time scale.

Soil properties are again related to the field systems under the trees make clear that the Muslim conquest led underlying rocks and relief, with red colluvia in the depressions, ex- to a natural reforestation. The overall picture is that of a very stable land- posed chalk ridges, and grey soils covering the natural terraces of scape, but the productivity of which is determined by water availability. The latter might once have carried red soils, as still pres- ent on the adjacent high plateau, but there is so far no reason to at- tribute their erosion to historical periods.

If they had been eroded re- cently, much more red colluvium should be visible in the Wadi el- 4 Conclusions Arab e. Al- Our results from the Decapolis region let many current actions of com- though the lower wadi terraces give evidence of recent soil move- bating desertification seem questionable.

This is not to say that reduc- ments, no red colluvia could be observed there. Civilization and the life of the so- was eroded during history. Younger colluvia since the mid-Holocene il. The free press, New York. Springer Verlag, Heidelberg. Victor Gollancz, London. Past and Present Deser- tributed to additions of calcareous dust, climate and the geological tification in the Context of Soil Development, Land Use, and Clima- pre-disposition were decisive for landscape development.

Disserta- which is the Younger Dryas, led to dramatic landscape instability in tion, Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto. If confronted with instabilities as documented from Epirus. Wiley, Chichester, Bernhard Lucke, born in Bielefeld, studied fore conducting large-scale land recovery programs. Environmental Engineering at BTU Cottbus and wrote his Diplom thesis about a historic desertifi- cation case study in Jordan. During he studied at the Pennsyl- vania State University, USA, as visiting research scho- We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of German Research lar in a Fulbright fellowship.

In he conduc- Foundation grant no. We would like to thank ted paleosol analyses in the geomorphological labora- Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordan, E. Environmental Geology 37 3 , Geoarchaeology, Vol. Demise of the Decapolis By Bernhard Lucke. The Decapolis region Northern Jordan as historical example of desertification? Evidence from soil development and distribution. By Bernhard Lucke.