Desert greening

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Deserting the desert is a desert reclamation process for ecological (biodiversity), agriculture and forestry reasons, but also for reclamation of natural water systems and other life-support ecological systems. The term "greening of the desert" is intended to be applied to cold deserts and dry and semi-arid heat (see Koeppen climate classification system). That does not apply to icy or permafrost areas. Desert greening has the potential to help solve the global water, energy, and food crisis. It deals with about 32 million square kilometers of land.

Video Desert greening

Method

• Controlled intensive rotation mill
• Holistic management
• Landscape method to reduce evaporation, erosion, upper layer soil consolidation, sand storms, temperatures and more
• Permaculture in general - harvesting rainwater runoff to cultivate a community of poly crop plants, composting or multitropic farming
• Plant trees (pioneer species) and salt-loving plants like Salicornia and Halophytes
• Soil regeneration is salty, polluted, or degenerated
• Retention and flood water infiltration (flood control)
• Greenhouse agriculture such as Integrated Biotortical Systems
• Cultivation of seawater as done by the Air Laut Foundation
• Coastal sea cultivation
• Prevention of excessive use of livestock and firewood
• Training of local people to care for planting, water systems etc.
• Plant trees with dew and rainfishing technologies like Groasis Waterboxx.

Maps Desert greening

Water

Greening the desert more or less the function of water availability. If enough water for irrigation is near, hot, cold, sandy or rocky deserts can be greened. Water can be available through savings, reuse, rainwater harvesting, desalination, or direct sea water use for salt-loving plants. These different paths have unique features, namely: saving water is a cheap solution. Reusable water use and cycle closure are most efficient because closed cycles stand for unlimited and sustainable supply - rainwater management is a decentralized solution and applies to inland areas - desalination is very safe as long as the main energy for operation of the desalination plant is available - Usage direct sea water for sea water farming is the most powerful, limited only by the need to pump water from sea level.

New desalination types are done with the Sahara Forest Project. The project uses solar stills for freshwater generation. Another new technique is the seeding of clouds, either by artificial means or by the action of bacteria sowing clouds that live in vegetation (eg Pseudomonas syringae ). Another, "atmospheric water generation" or air to water, uses dehumidification and is used by the military to produce drinking water. But this technology uses 200 times more energy than desalination, making it unsuitable for large-scale greening. The exception is the Integrated Biotortal System , which performs water-to-water in a greenhouse - a closed environment with optimal atmospheric conditions.

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Water distribution

Once water (fresh or sea) has been achieved in a centralized system, it must be distributed. This can be done using a dug channel or in some cases waterways (both of which are the least attractive option because it allows a lot of water to evaporate), troughs (such as those used in Keita Projects), earthenware piping (semi-open or closed) or even underground system ie qan? t.

Depending on the method of water distribution, it can be given on different methods for the plant. The expensive solution (only used on pipes) is drip irrigation. Another method is the use of wadis (basically a V-shaped pond dug up on earth) or simply by planting a tree in a hole inside/above the water pipe itself. The root of the tree can then suck water directly from the water pipe (used in qan? T, hydroponics,...) Similar techniques can be done with semi-open pipe (ie digging through within the Keita Project).

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Side effects

However, the use of water is not always without problems. The greening of the desert by the Helmand irrigation scheme and the Arghandab Valley Authority in Afghanistan significantly reduces the flow of water from the Helmand River to Lake Hamun and this, along with drought, is cited as the main reason for the severe damage to the ecology of Lake Hamun, many of which have declined since 1999 from land wet that is internationally important to the salt flats.

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Tree

The main component of the greening of deserts is the planting of trees. Trees store water, increase water from underlying aquifers, reduce evaporation after rain, attract animals (and thus fertility through impurities), and they can cause more rain to fall (by temperature reduction and other effects), if the area planted is large enough..

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Example

Thar Desert Land in Pakistan remains dry for most of the year and is prone to wind erosion. High-speed winds slammed the soil from the desert, deposited some in the neighbor's fertile soil, and caused a sand dune shift in the desert, which buried the fence and blocked roads and railroads. A permanent solution to the problem of this dune shift can be provided by planting the right species in the dunes to prevent further shifts and the planting of windbreaks and sheltered boards. This solution also provides protection from hot or cold wind and dry and sand raids. The Rajasthan Channel System is the main irrigation scheme of the Thar Desert and is intended to reclaim and check the spread of the desert to fertile areas.

Prevention of the sand dune shift is done through the Acacia tortilis plantation near the town of Laxmangarh. There are several types of local trees that are suitable for planting in the desert area and this grows slowly. The introduction of exotic tree species in the desert for plantations has become a necessity. Many species of Eucalyptus, Acacia, Cassia and other genera from Israel, Australia, USA, Russia, Zimbabwe, Chile, Peru, and Sudan have been tried in the Thar Desert. Acacia tortilis has proven to be the most promising species for the greening of the desert. Jojoba is another type of promising economic value that has been found to be suitable for planting in these areas.

Sundrop Farms launched a greenhouse in 2016 to produce 15,000 tons of tomatoes using only desert and water that flowed from the Gulf of Spencer.

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See also

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References

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External links

• "How to green a desert and reverse climate change" Allan Savory, TED talk , February 2013.
• Greening the Desert
• Greening Desert II - Final
• TS Prototype-Creation

Source of the article : Wikipedia