Soil Water: Basis for Conservation and Management of the Plant Cover of Dry Areas

The Earth's drylands are largely situated within Third World countries. Their essential property is dryness and the characteristic feature of the plant cover is low productivity. Differences in the ecological basis for grassland vegetation and woody vegetation and composition of the plant cover in dry climates with summer rain and winter rain, respectively, are emphasized. Future work to restore the plant cover of dry areas must be based on both sustainability and higher productivity for human needs. This work must include the restoration, as far as possible, of the natural plant cover as well as the rebuilding of the man-made plant cover, in a form better adapted to the hydrological resources, both surface- and groundwater. Extensive grazing of low-productive rangelands should be abandoned, in favor of more stationary feeding systems. The changes require simultaneous rural and urban development in the long term.