Bibliographic details: (APA)

Bruins, H. J., & Lithwick, H. (1998). Proactive planning and interactive management in arid frontier development. In The arid frontier (pp. 3-29). Springer, Dordrecht.

Abstract:

Deserts and drylands constitute about one-third of the terrestrial surface of the Earth. Nearly half the nations of the world have to cope, at least in part of their territory, with the constraining factors of aridity. Dryness negatively affects local availability of the most basic requirements for sustained human existence: water and food. A deeper understanding of these difficulties, as well as ways to alleviate them, is therefore of great importance to humanity, concerned as it is with environmental, social, political and economic development. It is possible to gain important insights into the problems of development in drylands by examining areas of transition, stress, and conflict. Such arid frontiers in the wide sense are the central focus of this volume.