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Drivers of Unsustainable Land Use in the Semi‐Arid Khabur River Basin, Syria
Author(s) -
HOLE FRANK
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
geographical research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.695
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1745-5871
pISSN - 1745-5863
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-5871.2008.00550.x
Subject(s) - geography , agriculture , arid , sustainability , climate change , natural resource , herding , irrigation , land use , drainage basin , environmental planning , environmental resource management , water resource management , political science , ecology , environmental science , forestry , cartography , archaeology , law , biology
The semi‐arid zone of Southwest Asia, known as the Fertile Crescent, is under unprecedented stress because of agricultural development. Where rain‐fed agriculture and transhumant herding had prevailed over ten millennia, today intensive cultivation with irrigation threatens future sustainability. A number of interconnected, but uncoordinated drivers of change combine to shape the landscape and its future, and their changes make it hard to anticipate future requirements and opportunities, as well as to implement policies, whether by local stakeholders or at the national level. Among the factors that comprise the socio‐natural systems are (1) climate, (2) water and soil resources, (3) history of land use, (4) social, economic and political factors, (5) infrastructural developments (6) interstate impacts, and (7) legacies of the past. The example of the Khabur River drainage in northeastern Syria shows the dynamic interplay among these factors over the past 70 years, with implications for the way future policies and practices are developed.