Download or read book Drylands written by Thea Astley and published by Text Publishing. This book was released on 2018-04-30 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This will be a book for the world’s last reader, she decided, chewing pen-end over an open exercise book. In the dying town of Drylands, Janet Deakin sells papers to lonely locals. At night, in her flat above the newsagency, she attempts to write a novel for a world in which no one reads—‘full of people, she envisaged, glaring at a screen that glared glassily back.’ Drylands is the story of the townsfolk’s harsh, violent lives. Trenchant and brilliant, Thea Astley’s final novel is a dark portrait of outback Australia in decline. Thea Astley was born in Brisbane in 1925. Her first novel, Girl with a Monkey, was published in 1958 and her third, The Well Dressed Explorer (1962), won the Miles Franklin Literary Award. Many notable books followed, among them the groundbreaking A Kindness Cup (1974), which addressed frontier massacres of Indigenous Australians, and It’s Raining in Mango (1987). Her last novel was Drylands (1999), her fourth Miles Franklin winner. Her fiction is distinguished by vivid imagery and metaphor; a complex, ironic style; and a desire to highlight oppression and social injustice. One of the most distinctive and influential Australian novelists of the twentieth century, Astley died in 2004. ‘It is impossible to put this book down. It seethes with energy and passion.’ Herald Sun 'Wonderful.' Australian
Download or read book The Drylands written by Mary Rosenblum and published by Del Rey. This book was released on 1993 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Future of Drylands written by Cathy Lee and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2008-11-14 with total page 816 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drylands have been cradles to some of the world’s greatest civilizations, and contemporary dryland communities feature rich and unique cultures. Dryland ecosystems support a surprising amount of biodiversity. Desertification, however, is a significant land degradation problem in the arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid regions of the world. Deterioration of soil and plant cover has adversely affected 70% of the world’s drylands as a result of extended droughts as well as mismanagement of range and cultivated lands. The situation is likely to worsen with high population growth rates and accompanying land-use conflicts. The contributions to The Future of Drylands – an international scientific conference held under the leadership of UNESCO – address these issues and offer practical solutions for combating desertification along with conserving and sustainably managing dryland ecosystems. Major themes include the conservation of dryland biological and cultural diversity and the human dryland interface. This volume documents how our improved understanding of drylands provides insight into the health and future prospects of these precious ecosystems that should help ensure that dryland communities enjoy a sustainable future.
Download or read book The nature of drylands diverse ecosystems diverse solutions written by and published by IUCN. This book was released on with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Dryland Ecohydrology written by Paolo D'Odorico and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2006-01-09 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ecohydrology emerges as a new field of research aiming at furthering our understanding of the earth system through the study of the interactions between the water cycle and vegetation. By combining the analysis of biotic and abiotic components of terrestrial ecosystems, this volume provides a synthesis of material on arid and semiarid landscapes, which is currently spread in a number of books and journal articles. The focus on water-limited ecosystems is motivated by their high sensitivity to daily, seasonal, and decadal perturbations in water availability, and by the ecologic, climatic, and economic significance of most of the drylands around the world. Conceived as a tool for scientists working in the area of the earth and environmental sciences, this book presents the basic principles of eco-hydrology as well as a broad spectrum of topics and advances in this research field. The chapters collected in this book have been contributed by authors with different expertise, who work in several arid areas around the World. They describe the various interactions among the biological and physical dynamics in dryland ecosystems, starting from basic processes in the soil-vegetation-climate system, to landscape-scale hydrologic and geomorphic processes, ecohydrologic controls on soil nutrient dynamics, and multiscale analyses of disturbances and patterns.
Download or read book Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond written by Brad Lancaster and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: « "Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, Volume 1' is the first book in a three-volume guide that teaches you how to conceptualize, design, and implement sustainable water-harvesting systems for your home, landscape, and community. The lessons in this volume will enable you to assess your on-site resources, give you a diverse array of strategies to maximize their potential, and empower you with guiding principles to create an integrated, multi-functional water-harvesting plan specific to your site and needs. »--
Download or read book Current Insights in Drylands written by Niall Patrick Hanan and published by Frontiers Media SA. This book was released on 2024-04-05 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We are now entering the third decade of the 21st century, and recent drylands-focused research has led to major advances in our understanding of the coupled roles of climatic, edaphic, biotic, and anthropogenic processes in dryland ecosystem function, degradation, and sustainable management. Frontiers has organized a series of Research Topics to highlight the latest advancements in science in order to be at the forefront of science in different fields of research. This editorial initiative, led by Professor Niall Hanan, Specialty Chief Editor of the Drylands section, together with Dr. Lindsay Hutley, is focused on new insights, novel developments, current challenges, latest discoveries, recent advances, and future perspectives in the drylands field.
Download or read book Drylands Facing Change written by Angela Kronenburg García and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-12-13 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edited volume examines the changes that arise from the entanglement of global interests and narratives with the local struggles that have always existed in the drylands of Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia/Inner Asia. Changes in drylands are happening in an overwhelming manner. Climate change, growing political instability, and increasing enclosures of large expanses of often common land are some of the changes with far-reaching consequences for those who make their living in the drylands. At the same time, powerful narratives about the drylands as ‘wastelands’ and their ‘backward’ inhabitants continue to hold sway, legitimizing interventions for development, security, and conservation, informing re-emerging frontiers of investment (for agriculture, extraction, infrastructure), and shaping new dryland identities. The chapters in this volume discuss the politics of change triggered by forces as diverse as the global land and resource rush, the expansion of new Information and Communication Technologies, urbanization, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the spread of violent extremism. While recognizing that changes are co-produced by differently positioned actors from within and outside the drylands, this volume presents the dryland’s point of view. It therefore takes the views, experiences, and agencies of dryland dwellers as the point of departure to not only understand the changes that are transforming their lives, livelihoods, and future aspirations, but also to highlight the unexpected spaces of contestation and innovation that have hitherto remained understudied. This edited volume will be of much interest to students, researchers, and scholars of natural resource management, land and resource grabbing, political ecology, sustainable development, and drylands in general. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.
Download or read book A Guide for Desert and Dryland Restoration written by David A. Bainbridge and published by Island Press. This book was released on 2012-09-26 with total page 411 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dryland degradation and desertification now affect almost a billion people around the world. Tragically, the biological resources and productivity of millions of acres of land are lost to desertification each year because people remain unaware of strategies and techniques that could improve yields, reduce risk, and begin healing the world's deserts. A Guide for Desert and Dryland Restoration is the first book to offer practical, field-tested solutions to this critical problem. Author David Bainbridge has spent more than 25 years actively involved in restoring lands across the American Southwest. A Guide for Desert and Dryland Restoration presents the results of his years of fieldwork, as well as research and experience from scientists and practitioners around the globe. The book discusses the ecology of desert plants, explores the causes of desertification and land abuse, and outlines the processes and procedures needed to evaluate, plan, implement, and monitor desert restoration projects. It sets forth economical and practical field-tested solutions for understanding site characteristics, selecting and growing plants, and ensuring that they survive with a minimal amount of water and care. Each chapter represents a guide to a critical topic for environmental restoration; extensive photographs, diagrams and drawings give detailed information for immediate application, and additional resources are included in appendixes. A Guide for Desert and Dryland Restoration is the first comprehensive book focused on restoring arid regions, and clearly demonstrates that arid lands can be successfully rehabilitated. In addition to restorationists, the book will be an invaluable resource for anyone working in arid lands, including farmers, ranchers, gardeners, landscapers, outdoor recreation professionals, and activists.
Download or read book Valuing restoring and managing presumed drylands Cerrado Miombo Mopane woodlands and the Qinghai Tibetan Plateau written by Haddad, F.F., Blicharska, M., Westerberg, V., Riccardi, T., Costa, L. and published by Food & Agriculture Org.. This book was released on 2022-05-13 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The study "Valuing, restoring and managing presumed drylands: Cerrado, Miombo–Mopane woodlands and the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau" confirms the existence of 1 075 million hectares of presumed drylands that are under threat from unsustainable use and climate change. This is in addition to the 6.1 billion hectares of official drylands that already cover 41 percent of the planet’s land surface and are home to 2 billion people. All these areas contain high levels of biodiversity and are home to a large number of people reliant on agriculture to sustain their livelihoods, this is why it's so important to research, analyse and work to protect them. The report contains concrete information on the environmental and ecological value of these dryland areas, and key recommendations for actions to limit land degradation, sustain biodiversity and mitigate climate change.
Download or read book Trees forests and land use in drylands the first global assessment written by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and published by Food & Agriculture Org.. This book was released on 2019-11-29 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drylands cover 41 percent of the Earth's land surface. This publication presents the results of the first global assessment of trees, forests and land use in these lands. The assessment breaks new methodological ground: it relies on the visual interpreation of freely available satellite images, carried out by more than 200 experts in a series of regional workshops. Using a tool called Open Foris ollect Earth, developed by FAO in collaboration with Google, participants gathered and analysed information for mrore than 200 000 sample plots worldwide. For each region, the report summarizes the distribution of forests, other wooded land and other land uses including grasslands, croplands, built-up areas and barren land, across all drylands and by aridity zone. It also estimates tree canopy cover, shrub cover, forest type and presence of trees outside forest. Indicatng that the global drylands contain more than one-quarter of the world's forest area, and that trees are present on 31 percent of the world's dryland area, the report provides a baseline for future monitoring and will support countries in their efforts to identify appropriate investments for the restoration and sustainable management of drylands.
Download or read book Improved Agricultural Water Management for Africa s Drylands written by Christopher Ward and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2016-08-23 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: D ryland regions in Sub-Saharan Africa are home to one-half of the region’s population and three-quarters of its poor. Poor both in natural resources and in assets and income, the inhabitants of drylands are highly vulnerable to droughts and other shocks. Despite a long history of interventions by governments, development agencies, and civil society organizations, there have been no sustained large-scale successes toward improving the resilience of drylands dwellers. Improved Agricultural Water Management for Africa’s Drylands describes the extent to which agricultural water management interventions in dryland regions of Sub-Saharan Africa can enhance the resilience and improve the well-being of the people living in those regions, proposes what can realistically be done to promote improved agricultural water management, and sets out how stakeholders can make those improvements. After reviewing the current status of irrigation and agricultural water management in the drylands, the authors discuss technical, economic, and institutional challenges to expanding irrigation. A model developed at the International Food Policy Research Institute is used to project the potential for irrigation development in the Sahel Region and the Horn of Africa. The modeling results show that irrigation development in the drylands can reduce vulnerability and improve the resilience of hundreds of thousands of farming households, but rainfed agriculture will continue to dominate for the foreseeable future. Fortunately, many soil and water conservation practices that can improve the productivity and ensure the sustainability of rainfed cropping systems are available. The purpose of this book is to demonstrate the potentially highly benefi cial role of water and water management in drylands agriculture in association with agronomic improvements, market growth, and infrastructure development, and to assess the technological and socioeconomic conditions and institutional policy frameworks that can remove barriers to adoption and allow wide-scale take-up of improved agricultural water management in the dryland regions of Sub-Saharan Africa.
Download or read book Patterns of Land Degradation in Drylands written by Eva Nora Mueller and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-08-15 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the theory of ecogeomorphic pattern-process linkages, using case studies from Europe, Africa, Australia and North America. Sets forth a research agenda for the emerging field of ecogeomorphology in drylands land-degradation studies.
Download or read book Stewardship of Future Drylands and Climate Change in the Global South written by Simone Lucatello and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2019-10-10 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume integrates a conceptual framework with participatory methodologies to understand the complexities of dryland socio-ecological systems, and to address challenges and opportunities for stewardship of future drylands and climate change in the global south. Through several case studies, the book offers a transdisciplinary and participatory approach to understand the complexity of socio-ecological systems, to co-produce accurate resource management plans for sustained stewardship, and to drive social learning and polycentric governance. This systemic framework permits the study of human-nature interrelationships through time and in particular contexts, with a focus on achieving progress in accordance with the 2030 United Nations Agenda for Sustainable Development. The book is divided into four main sections: 1) drylands and socio-ecological systems, 2) transdisciplinarity in drylands, 3) interculturality in drylands, and 4) the governance of drylands. Expert contributors address topics such as pastoralism and the characteristics of successful agricultural lands, the sustainable development goals and drylands, dryland modernization, and arid land governance with a focus on Mexico. The volume will be of interest to dryland researchers, sustainable development practitioners and policymakers.
Download or read book Improved Crop Productivity for Africa s Drylands written by Tom Walker and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2016-08-17 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More than 200 million people living in dryland regions of Sub-Saharan Africa make their living from agriculture. Most are exposed to weather shocks, especially drought, that can decimate their incomes, destroy their assets, and plunge them into a poverty trap from which it is diffi cult to emerge. Their lack of resilience in the face of these shocks can be attributed in large part to the poor performance of agriculture on which their livelihood depends. Opportunities exist to improve the fortunes of farming households in the drylands. Improved farming technologies that can increase and stabilize the production of millet, sorghum, maize, and other leading staples are available. Irrigation is technically and economically feasible in some areas and offers additional opportunities to increase and stabilize crop production, especially small-scale irrigation, which tends to be more affordable and easier to manage. Yet many of these opportunities have not been exploited on a large scale, for reasons that include lack of farmer knowledge, nonavailability of inputs, unfavorable price incentives, high levels of production risk, and high cost. Future production growth in drylands agriculture is expected to come mainly from raising yields and increasing the number of crop rotations on land that is already being cultivated (intensifi cation), rather than from bringing new land into cultivation (extensifi cation). Controlling for rainfall, average yields in rainfed cropping systems in Sub-Saharan Africa are still much lower than yields in rainfed cropping systems in other regions, suggesting that there is considerable scope to intensify production in these systems. Furthermore, unlike in other regions, production of low-value cereals under irrigation is generally not economic in Sub-Saharan Africa unless the cereals can be grown in rotation with one or more high-value cash crops. The long-run strategy for drylands agriculture, therefore, must be to promote production of staples in rainfed systems and production of high-value cereals (for example, rice), horticultural cops, and industrial crops in irrigated systems. Based on a detailed review of currently available technologies, Improved Crop Productivity for Africa’s Drylands argues that improving the productivity and stability of agriculture in the drylands has the potential to make a signifi cant contribution to reducing vulnerability and increasing resilience. At the same time, it is important to keep in mind that in an environment characterized by limited agro-climatic potential and subject to repeated shocks, farming on small land holdings may not generate suffi cient income to bring people out of poverty.
Download or read book Confronting Drought in Africa s Drylands written by Raffaello Cervigni and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2016-05-10 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drylands are at the core of Africa’s development challenge. Drylands make up about 43 percent of the region’s land surface, account for about 75 percent of the area used for agriculture, and are home to about 50 percent of the population, including a disproportionate share of the poor. Due to complex interactions among many factors, vulnerability in drylands is high and rising, jeopardizing the long-term livelihood prospects for hundreds of millions of people. Climate change, which is expected to increase the frequency and severity of extreme weather events, will exacerbate this challenge. African governments and their partners in the international development community stand ready to tackle the challenges confronting drylands, but important questions remain unanswered about how the task should be undertaken. Do dryland environments contain enough resources to generate the food, jobs, and income needed to support sustainable livelihoods for a fast growing population? If not, can injections of external resources make up the deficit? Or is the carrying capacity of drylands so limited that outmigration should be encouraged? Based on analysis of current and projected future drivers of vulnerability and resilience, the report uses an original modeling framework to identify promising interventions, quantify their likely costs and benefits, and describe the policy trade-offs that will need to be addressed. By 2030, economic growth leading to structural change will allow some of the people living in drylands to transition to non-agriculture based livelihood strategies, reducing their vulnerability. Many others will continue to rely on livestock keeping and crop farming. For the latter group, a number of “best bet†? interventions have the potential to make a significant difference in reducing vulnerability and increasing resilience. This report evaluates the opportunities and challenges associated with these interventions, and it draws a number of conclusions that have important implications for policy making.
Download or read book Innovative ways for a sustainable use of drylands final report of the Sumamad Project written by UNESCO and published by UNESCO. This book was released on 2014-06-16 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
