Making the World’s Deserts Bloom
Making the World’s Deserts Bloom
August 27, 2012
Israel 21c — With the desert covering a large part of its surface, Israel as been motivated to develop solutions to overcome its lack of arable land and potable water. These solutions are being used in desert and dryland regions around the world.
The vast majority of Israel’s top 10 advances to combat desertification featured in Israel21C‘s recent article are based on research conducted at BGU’s Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research (BIDR).
BIDR innovations highlighted include developing a runoff agroforestry system based on techniques used by the ancient Nabataeans; solar energy technologies to prevent further deforestation; designing climate-responsive, energy efficient buildings; and even a system that uses low quality water to raise fish in the desert.