Arid Lands, Humankind and Environment

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Aims

Arid Lands cover about 1/3 of the world area and comprise of a belt extending from central and western Asia to north Africa, Australia, southern Africa, western American, Peru and Atacama. Water resources are very scarce due to three factors. Firstly, most of the surface water comes from adjacent wet regions. Secondly, the (under)ground water is mostly fossil and not renewable. Thirdly, rainfall is often hazardous.

Arid regions, especially in Africa, might have seen the first step of mankind. Therefore they lend themselves to geoarchaeological investigations to reconstruct the interaction of human and environment. Today, the human Impact differs among the arid land regions according to the cultural levels. Population pressure is very high in the arid regions of the Old World, while it is not so in the New World. For example, urban growth has contributed greatly to the problems of croplands. In general, human impact has exhausted local water resources. Development planning in several countries of the arid regions does not take into consideration liabilities of water shortage by initiating agricultural projects or digging water wells in the rangeland causing much damage to the fragile ecosystem.

These major aspects among others support the suggestion of establishing an IGU commission for "Arid Lands, Humankind, and Environment" that wants to

Promote the study of geographical problems in Arid Lands.
Monitor human and environmental changes in Arid Lands.
Build a database for these works related to the arid lands to facilitate and promote future research.
Support comprehensive fieldwork in arid regions.
Develop academic and research networks and cooperate with other projects (e.g. DesertNet, UNCCD, ACACIA, IGCP 500, INQUA).
Promote standardization and compatibility of methods, nomenclature and symbols employed by geographers and other interrelated disciplines.
Organize meetings to bring together geographers; especially to re-establish better interaction with colleagues in the Arab world who have not participated in the IGU much until now.