Export-driven development of soil and water resources : barrier to sustainable development and inducement to desertification

Abstract

About 3500 million hectares of land--an area the size of North and South America combined--are affected by desertification or land converting to desert under the impact of man's activities. This figure excludes expansion of desert occurring through natural processes. Annual expansion of desertified land is about 6 million hectares or 13.2 million acres. As present world population doubles to 10 billion people within the next forty years, production of adequate food will be critical to avert world-wide global deprivation. This requires advanced planning. Despite technical expertise to resolve this most serious environmental problem, effective solutions have not been found to check its global advance. It is believed that the resolution lies in addressing not only the physical causes of desertification--but the related social, political, and economic factors. Land-use decisions, moreover, are made largely by professionals untrained in the technical knowledge important to wise decision-making to avoid desertification. Literature search revealed no in formation on this crucially important global issue that was addressed to those in the planning professions. This dissertation, therefore, addresses a perceived need to provide fundamental information, analyzing and synthesizing it expressly for those in the planning and design professions,, and presenting this information in the form of a model that will effectively function to guide the decision-making process for avoidance of desertification.