Do you think that the desert environments considered as a lab for future cities?
No all cities become desert due toclimate change
Desert climatic conditions more critical due to climate change
The best use for hot arid deserts in the northern hemisphere should be to revegetate with local native plants, to increase the Pseudomonas host plants, and increase the rainfall, and sequester carbon, lower the atmospheric dust levels, and cool the plant by insulating the soil/ See http://www.ecoseeds.com/Saudi.html
بالنسبة لما طرحت سؤال مهم جدا .. فنجد ان مساحات واسعه من الصحراء لم يتم استغلالها وانه لو استثمرت بصورة صحيحة لكان هناكعائد هائل من الاموال فضلا عن معالجة الكثير من المشاكل منها ازمة السكن .. ومنها توفير منتجات زراعيه ..ومنهاحلول بيئية تجاه زحف الصحراء ومنها ايضا تقليل الاعتماد على البضائع المستوردة بل وتصدير فائض الانتاج الى الخارج
ENGLISH translation of Ahmed's answer--
As for the question posed is very important .. We find that large areas of the desert has not been exploited and that if invested correctly, there would be a huge return of money as well as address many of the problems, including the housing crisis .. Including the provision of agricultural products .. And environmental solutions to the march of the desert and Also reduce reliance on imported goods and even export surplus production abroad
The paradox of the northern hemisphere deserts--(in order of size) --Saharan, Arabian, Gobi, Syrian, Karakum, Kyzylkum, Taklamakam, Thar, Dasht-e Margo, Registan, Dash-e Kavir, and Dash-e Loot is that all of them exist because those former arid perennial native grasslands and savannah native habitats were overexploited in the past, for grazing and marginal agriculture, that created those deserts in the first place.
If we want to re-exploit these man-made desert areas again, we need to replant the local native perennial grasses and wildflowers, so the process of soil-building can start again. Plus, we need to increase the rainfall, by replanting the native pseudomonas host plants and gilled mushrooms, that create the rain clouds for us--see http://discovermagazine.com/2012/apr/07-does-rain-come-from-life-in-the-clouds ?
Not just because of climate change but with the increased deforestation that it's occurring at Brazil, for exemple, the desert environments can take place with serious negative impacts at the hydrologic and other biogeochemical cycles. The deforestation has impact at water, fauna and flora, regional weather, climate change, soil quality, etc.
Many thanks Dr. Nagalakshmi Radhakrishnan , Dr. Mitra, Dr. Hassan and Dr. Shukla
I think that ecological restored deserts of our planet, will become the new lush lands for people to be able to repopulate, once we get the local native grasses and native trees planted back
For example, the Sinai Peninsula would be the perfect spot to replant the native perennial grasses and local native trees, along with the Pseudomonas bacteria host plants that help form the rain clouds.
That is because not long ago, the Sinai had massive flowing rivers, when the trees and vegetation was there to harvest the monsoonal moisture that still moves over than land each summer.
Just by replanting the native grasses and trees in the Sinai, the people of Egypt could have about 10,000 square miles (25,000 square kilometers) of lush land to move back to, the proverbial "Land of Milk and Honey"?
Since the desert of the Sinai and the Arabian peninsula are man-made, it makes sense that humans use modern science plus Ecological Restoration, along with the funds they are wasting on unnecessary military budgets, to bring those favorable conditions back and bring their people long-term environmental security?
Domesticated animals still utilize a lot of native vegetation that still exists in the Sinai --You can see the grazing animal trails in the photo taken by the confluence.org member of the intersection of 30N Lat. and 33E Long.
Animal grazing could end in the Sinai, when it is realized that the native plants are much more valuable for restoring the water flows to the area, than as animal food?
With all of that water that could return to all those dry wadis, then irrigated pastures could be used, instead of the valuable native plants.
If more of the same grass plants and the native trees replanted, that could fill those empty wadis, with flowing water again. Look how lush the Sinai was, and how lush it could be again?
What a great answer!
how lush it could be again?
its a dream, i wonder if we can do a project about that important topic?
From Article Palaeohydrological corridors for hominin dispersals in the M...
you can see how the barren desert that produces the Dust Cloud is the "North Arabian desert barrier" on the precip. map, and it works both ways.Allowing the grazing animals to eat the native vegation to dust each year, permanently and continually puts the atmospheric dust in the air that dissipates the rain clouds from forming over the Sinai.
That is the rain clouds being blocked that are coming from either the west or the summer monsoon moisture coming from the east and India--even though you can see there was massive amounts of rainfall producing all of those stream beds.
Initially, by removing the grazing animals, that might allow for natural revegetation of the native plants, and once the ground is covered again and the Dust Cloud eliminated, it would be very reasonable to produce at least 800 mm to one meter of annual rainfall each year, where it is currently 100-200 mm.
We all need to decide in the arid parts of our planet, like the people of Salalah, Oman decided about 2,000 years ago--is the natural vegetation more valuable to produce the rainfall for the whole area, or should we let the animals eat that rain-producing vegetation to dust, and produce another "Empty Quarter" in our countries?
Then, once the dry wadis are filled with flowing water all through the year, then a little of that reliable water could be diverted to irrigate pastures, so that the grazing animals could return.
Bringing the animals back before the hydrological and weather systems are meshed back in place, will just undo all of your hard work, so the hugely and massively difficult part will NOT be doing the ecological restoration, but keeping the grazing animals off before the process is completed and the ecological restoration process is stable for the future.
So it is up to each arid country on the planet, how much is one more square kilometer of land with a reliable one meter or more of annual rainfall worth?
It is like building a new homeland, that could potentially be the home for tens of millions of people in the future--So how much can each country spend on restoring a homeland that is more ecologically secure-- maybe by diverting a portion of the military budgets and weapons purchases each year, that do nothing to provide ecological security?
The method I would start, is at the northern leading edge of the Sinai rainfall boundary, and extend the native plants southward, and make a deal to pay the local herders, to help do the replanting process at double whatever they were making by grazing the area.
If the local people can make more money by replanting and protecting the native plants, than utilizing them, then you have a chance of producing something like Salalah, Oman.
I am starting a project in Western Kansas in September, where we are going to take the headwaters of an intermittent stream, that shows as a dotted blue line on the topo map, and turn it into a solid blue line, which means a stream flowing year-around. We are calling it "From Dotted Blue to Solid Blue"
I have already done that with two streams here in California already, so the native riparian plants in the bottom of the dry wadis put water into the soil, as do the local perennial native grass plants on the uplands that surround the wadis.
In the Sinai, according to the rainfall map at https://ufbutv.com/2014/11/16/conflict-on-the-nile/rainfall-egypt/ you could also start in the middle of the peninsula, where the rainfall makes a bulls-eye?'
I would also work on the very edge of the Red Sea, and move the rainfall westward from that coast side, into Cairo and to Suez, and also from Lake Nassar to the Red Sea. You would probably have less grazing in that rectangle, than you would have in the bulls-eye area of the Sinai.
Then once the ecological restoration of that rectangle is finished to the Nile, then you can start pushing the desert west wards to the Libyan border, and maybe by that time, the Libyans would want to join in, and start at the Egypt border and continue westward to the Tunisian and Algerian borders?
Then finally, the southern Saharan countries could start the process from the south, northward--and extinguish the man-made desert in the middle, like Northern Sudan, Chad, Niger, Mali, and Mauritania. Those countries will be the fastest benefits from the ecological restoration, because they are right in the path each summer of the Indian monsoon moisture.
Last year I did my DNA through LivingDNA, and my mother's line is 61% Taurig from the Fezzan region of Libya, plus percentages from the Near East, Libyan, Tunisian, Jordan, Syria, Iran, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Mauritania and Egypt -- So, it would be very nice, if something I invented here in the USA to get rivers flowing, could do the same in the deserts of my relatives?--That would be a nice gift to give?
Here is a beautiful possibility in the eastern Egyptian desert at Lat. N 28,Long. E 32, massive amounts of dry wadis, just waiting to get filled with water again.
Also, attached what ecological restoration of the Egyptian deserts could look like.
Then, while you are rebuilding the native grasslands and savannah out in the man-made deserts of Egypt, within each city to cut down on the heat-island effects, every building in every city that has a flat roof larger than 20 metes by 20 meters, the government pays to have solar panels installed.
The solar panels will do at least three things--1.) the panel will absorb the sun's heat and not radiate it back to warm the air to create the heat island like any roofing material would, 2.) the panel would shade the roof, so the building will be cooler, and need less energy, and 3.) Local power would be generated, lowering the use of fossil fuels for cooling, appliances, etc.
This could be tried on a small scale within a few square blocks, and if there were room on the street, add some native acacia trees for shade, and see if that cuts down on the heat island effect, plus generates a lot of local power, and cools the buildings significantly?
An example of two flat-roofed buildings of the right size from Cairo shown above.
Many thanks my dear Craig Carlton Dremann , i really appreciate your useful and details answers.
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with my best wishes
Hossam
Egypt and the Southwest USA are in the same spot, that we are located in deserts and both depend on water supplies that originate from mountains many hundreds of miles upstream from where the populations reside. 40 million in California, 7 million in Arizona, etc. and 97 million in Egypt.
So, there are at least two choices to help secure those water supplies for the future--increase the local watershed production via setting aside those headwaters as Ecological Restoration Preserves.
And/or pay to set aside the distant watershed that already produce your water supply, as Ecological Restoration Preserves, and also pay for the actual restoration of the headwaters.
Any interest in using deserts as homes for humans, need to start the ecological restoration of the headwaters of the watersheds, for the people who already live there and for future population or land-area increases.
Like Costa Rica, converting the military-budgets into Ecological Restoration budgets, so that for all of the arid lands on the planet, we can have a continued and increased water supply?
That will be a future huge environmental issue for countries like the USA, China, India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Yemen, Iraq, Iran, etc.
Quit fighting, put down the weapons, cancel the purchase orders for the war planes, guns and hardware, you are buying from abroad.
Use that money to give your people ecological security, infinitely more important than military security, so that your civilization will not blow away in the dust, like the Sabaeans when their Great Marib dam failed, or the 1,000 cities of the Indus Valley people that were abandoned, or the Maya or the Anasazi?
ADDING the Pseudomonas host plants, while doing the ecological restoration of Egypt's grasslands and savanah, to convert the desert areas into habitable areas with increase rainfall and lower maximum summer temperatures, would be a very important item to include.
From a very small area of the native Pseudomonas host plants planted and protected, massive amount of rain clouds cloud be produced.
If the planting started as a line planted along the coast of the Red Sea, to harvest the moisture of the summer monsoon flow, that line of the native host plants, could produce rain clouds covering the whole of Egypt, and getting all of those dry wadis flowing again.
You can see in the images of those clouds forming today from the host plants growing along the west coast of Burma, the area of host plants is about 2 x 2 mm in the picture, whereas the rain clouds produced are covering 25 x 50 mm, or a ratio of about 1:300.
So every square km. planted with native Pseudomonas host plants, could produce 300 square kilometers of about one meter of annual rainfall. So Egypt's area is very close to one million square kilometers, so that means, only about 3,333 square kilometers replanted, could green up the entire country again.
At that ratio, a 5 kilometer wide planting along the Red Sea coast mountains, could produce the rainclouds to cover and produce rain for the width of Egypt, about 1,240 kilometers across.
When you zoom in to see the source of the rain clouds in Burma, you find that it is a tiny area of forest only 5 km. by 5 km. as the birthplace for for about 8,000 square kilometers of rain clouds. That is why by planting the 4-5 kilometer wide strip of native forest trees along the east Red Sea coast of Egypt, could produce maybe one meter of rain each year, for the whole country, and change the deserts back into native grasslands and savannah?
At the same time, you need to keep the domesticated animals from eating all of the native vegetation to dust, creating the Dust Clouds that block or stop the rain. This week, the Pakistan-Arabia Dust Cloud has formed a wall, keeping the monsoon rain clouds from moving westward and raining in Iraq, Iran and Arabia, and causing floods in 13 districts in India today.
This week, the Pseudomonas host plants are producing rain clouds from the forests off the west coast of India, into the Arabian Sea at about a 1:300 ratio. That means a one kilometer wide line of Pseudomonas host plants could produce rain cloud to rain on another 300 kilometers down wind.
And that rainfall should be about one meter a year, if you are within the summer Indian monsoon moisture belt between 5 degrees and 30 degrees north latitude? What if those host plants were planted upwind of the That desert in India, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, etc?
Something very interesting going on in western coast of Arabia today, the Pseudomonas host plants are forming rain clouds over the Red Sea and into Africa. Out of the untamed mountain forests, rain clouds are forming from the little remnants of the forests, that is still not been farmed and terraced.
Plus the moisture that you see in the picture, covering half of Arabia and part of Egypt is flowing by every hour, that could be harvested to produce rain clouds, if Pseudomonas host plants were planted to produce those clouds.
>>Four very important things are happening today - in India, southern Iran and Oman. 1.) Floods in India -- Maharashtra floods: 29 dead in Pune division so far, caused by the monsoon moisture being blocked by the Pakistan-Arabia Dust Cloud. 2.) West coast of India forest trees, producing more Pseudomonas rain clouds, 3.) Moisture from monsoon going over the three southern provinces of Iran and over Oman where 12 million Iranis and 4 million Omani will NOT get a single drop of rain, because they have not replanted the Pseudomonas host plants, or replanted the native perennial grasses to harvest that moisture and produce the rain clouds for them, and 4.) The Dust Clouds are getting stronger over Pakistan and Arabia, because the animal-grazers are not leaving any vegetation on the surface, to keep the soil from not getting airborne.
>>If every person in southern Iran and Oman, planted one native tree and ten native perennial grass plant around those trees each year, that would mean about 16 million trees could get planted along with 160 million native grass plants, and covering about 150 square kilometers.
>>Then when you add the 300X raincloud multiplier-effect, that means rain clouds could be produced to rain on about 45,000 square kilometers of those two countries, with about one meter of annual rainfall?
>>Just need to redirect a tiny bit of each of those country's military budgets, and form a new "Department for Ecological Security" and fund the "Native Tree and Native Grass Ecological Restoration Rainfall Project" ?
>>Then, if all of Egypt did the same ecological restoration planting program with its 100 million population, that would mean 100 million native trees each year, with one billion native grasses growing underneath them, to cover 1,000 square kilometers, to produce one meter of rain on about 300,000 square kilometers?
Today there is a spin getting started for the storm between India and Oman, but the strength of the Pakistan-Arabia Dust Cloud will probably keep it off shore and weaken it over time. The other possibility is that the storm just gets trapped spinning for a week around the Straits of Hormuz? The other interesting part of the picture, is what is usually considered the "India Monsoon" rain clouds, is 100% Pseudomonas clouds coming off the SE Asia forests--they have a distinctive satellite image pattern.
Potential floods this week in the Thar desert of India, or northern Pakistan? Massive amounts of Pseudomonas clouds are crossing the ocean, south of India, and going towards Africa.
The Pakistan-Arabia Dust Cloud is forming a pocket that may stall that circular storm in northern India, and may force the torrential rainfall to go north of the Thar and cause floods in northern Pakistan instead?
Another flood today in India, due to the Pakistan-Arabia Dust Cloud forming a pocket and stopping the westward movement of the monsoon rain clouds. Just a little forest replanted in western India, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Arabia, could keep that moisture moving instead of getting blocked and causing floods.
Today, there is a very clear line and wall stopping the westward movement of the monsoon rain clouds by the Pakistan-Arabia Dust cloud. The rain clouds are trying to bring lot of rain westward to Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Jordan, Arabia, Kuwait Qatar, UAE, and some investment by those countries to revegetate the native trees and local native grasses, and stop the dust from getting airborne, would help bring a lot of rain to those countries every summer.
If you can find water at depth in a desert you can turn the desert green and populate it and have a new city.
The desert water under ground, was deposited hundreds to thousands of years ago, so it usually called "fossil" water. What I am suggesting, is making rain clouds form over deserts, and produce a new crop of water.
yes, i think that.the human population is growing, so it will be necessary to find solutions in these ecosystems
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