Desert Regions

People have lived in arid lands since pre-historic times. There have always been deserts, and there have always been droughts. Only in comparatively recent years, as Cloudsley-Thompson (1986) justly notes, has the man-desert interaction led to such dramatic social and environmental consequences as those that were witnessed during the Sahel droughts of 1968-73 and 1982-85. These droughts caused the collapse of the entire agricultural base of five countries (Mauritania, Upper Volta, Mal~ Niger and Chad), already among the poorest nations in the world, and severe damage to the agricultural base of two others: Senegal and Gambia (UNCOD 1977). By some estimations, between 100,000 and 250,000 died as a result of the drought. In addition, some refugees never returned to their homelands (Kates et al. 1977)

The desert, whose hot and dry climate is generally unsuitable for fanning without importing water, was traditionally considered an unfavorable place for human habitation. Although deserts encompass more than one-third of the world’s land mass (Maddock 1977), there are few historic and pre-historic urban settlements in desert areas. In recent years, however, the pace of desert urbanization has changed; a number of urban settlements in desert regions across the globe were either established or received a significant growth impetus. Examples include Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona; Be’er Sheva and Eilat in Israel; Pilbara in Western Australia; Ashgabat and Mary in Turkmenistan.

In the previous chapter, two criteria of urban development — the rate of private construction and the migration balance/natural growth index (the MB/NG index) — were used to gauge the performance of desert localities in comparison with urban settlements located elsewhere.In the present chapter, we shall discuss in detail the derivation of the index (MB/NG) and a manner in which it may serve as a general indicator of sustainable population growth. The performance and determinants of this indicator will also be analyzed using a broader settlement sample.

Overcoming inequalities in the level of socio-economic development among regions is, undoubtedly, a key issue for urban and regional planning worldwide. The importance of this issue has grown in recent years, due to the fact that differentials in development potential between areas have tended to increase rather than narrow (Wong 1995).

As differentials in development potential have increased in recent years (Wong 1995), overcoming inequalities in the level of socio-economic development has become a key issue for urban and regional planners worldwide. These inequalities are often the result of the spatial characteristics of the settlement pattern, reflecting differences between core and peripheral areas.

If a region exhibits neither a significant influx of migrants nor an outflow of its current residents, this state of migration can be defined as neutral. Knowing the country-specific preconditions for an area’s “migration neutrality” can help planners and decision-makers to determine regional development policies aimed at a more balanced distribution of a country’s population. This may be achieved by both encouraging an influx of migrants into peripheral desert areas, and preventing further concentration of migrants in overpopulated core regions.

“Desert” is a range of terrestrial ecosystems. An ecosystem is a production enterprise: its biota appropriates from the environment raw materials such as minerals and water, and energy such as solar energy, for the production PROCESS. From an ecological standpoint “development” is an induced increase of ecosystem production. From the human standpoint ecosystems also provide “services,” such as the sequestration of carbon. “Sustainable development” is a process that increases ecosystem production without impairing the generation of ecosystem services.

Theories and models are by definition of an abstract, general nature. Thus, they refer to no place in particular and, consequently, are disconnected from landscape, climate and culture. This is especially so with theories based on economics and statistics, or with different design fashions, such as those we have witnessed in the last century.

The effect of buildings on the dry deposition of dust was investigated in Be’er-Sheva, a desert city in southern Israel, and at two reference points in the surrounding countryside. The mineral and chemical composition of dust sampled at all sites was similar, reflecting the composition of the local loess soil, its likely origin. However, dust deposited in the traps set up in the vicinity of buildings in the city was significantly coarser than the dust which accumulated in similar traps at exposed sites in the countryside. The amount of dust in the urban dust traps was on average more than twice the amount deposited in the rural area. The differences in grain-size distribution and quantity of dust are accounted for by the disturbances to the natural environment caused by the presence of buildings and by human activity in the city.

This study suggests that strategies commonly employed in the design of buildings and urban space to reduce exposure to dust, such as the construction of walled courtyards, are not effective. A significant reduction in the concentration of dust in the vicinity of buildings in desert cities may require a comprehensive approach which deals with the entire urban area and its immediate surroundings, particularly with a view to reduce the availability of erodible particles by means of planting or paving all exposed land surfaces.

Since the early 1990s, Israel’s settlement pattern has experienced significant growth as a result of the rapid absorption of over 400,000 new immigrants (between 1989–90). By the end of 1996, Israel’s population reached 5.8 million inhabitants, having experienced annual growth of over five per cent during the years 1990 and 1991. While new settlements were not founded, new neighborhoods were built in nearly all existing communities, in some cases resulting in a significant physical expansion.

In many of the arid regions of the world, one can discover vast areas of deserted agricultural terraces, ruins of farms and ghost cities, all flourished during historical periods. In some places, one can see traces of later attempts to resettle these areas, but except for some impoverished nomad communities nothing survived. The question, which comes to the mind of the tourist walking through the streets of the deserted cities, climbing the ruined dams and terraces is whether these areas can be resettled? It is the opinion of the author of the present chapter that the answer depends on the understanding of the reasons for the desertion of these areas. As long as the answer continues to be incorrect, conclusions with regard to the way in which to resettle these regions will be erroneous too, and thus failure will be also the result of future attempts.

The fact that Israel is a very sunny country would make one expect to find many solar buildings and solar neighborhoods in it. Surprisingly though, these practically do not exist: the number of solar buildings in Israel is small, and the first solar neighborhood has been built in this country. In general, the move towards “solar” is slow at the most. An attempt was made by the Israeli Ministry of Housing and the Ministry of Energy to promote solar neighborhood development, and indeed one such neighborhood was planned and designed through an open competition in Mitzpe-Ramon (Rahamimoff 1984), but the winning entry has not been built up to date, mostly due to lack of resources. The reasons for this lack of solar and energy efficient designs are mostly the insufficient awareness (if it at all exists) of designers and consumers to the solar design potential on one hand, and the practical non-existence of neighborhoods whose zoning takes advantage of solar rights, solar access and orientation. This, coupled with the generally small size of building lots, makes it very difficult to build solar houses in Israel.

Desert architecture may be characterized as “Architecture of the Extremes,” being basically similar to “regular” architecture but differentiated from it by its obligation to address needs and problems of an extreme character. The problem of thermal comfort in buildings is perceived as one of the more characteristic and difficult problems that desert architecture must address, even though this is not the only problem nor necessarily the most difficult one. A typical way of addressing the thennal comfort issue in buildings is by intensive use of expendable energies, but this, of course, is not an ideal approach: it leads to waste of energy, it is expensive, and not everyone is comfortable with the thermal conditions it creates (witness the number of people who do not like air-conditioning). Various characteristics of design and construction enable the improvement of thennal comfort to be integrated into a building without the use of artificial means and expendable energy. Now, when it seems that even the drowsy Negev (the southern half of the Israeli land area, which houses only about 7 percent of the country’s population) is awakening to a building surge, it is desirable to clarify these methods, and even to try to apply them in new building projects. What’s more, as an ever increasing worldwide need for housing construction is evident, much of it in hot arid lands, the “right” type of building technology should be used to improve standards of living and decrease the use of purchased energies.

The attractiveness of a city is a matter of human perceptions, and the desert city has historically faced an image problem. The very word desert conjures up images of an inhospitable wilderness — hot, dry and dusty. By extension, the physical barrenness of the desert is often applied to urban culture, as a scarcity of life is translated to mean a scarcity of everything from grassy parks to good jobs.

Le Corbusier considered buildings “machines for living in.” Modem buildings have indeed become increasingly complex, involving technologically advanced building materials, and mechanical systems for controlling interior air quality, thermal comfort, lighting and acoustics. These systems, which rely exclusively on the utilization of non-renewable energy, are often expensive to install and energy intensive in operation. This is particularly true of buildings constructed in locations with extreme climatic conditions, such as deserts, where the difference between ambient conditions and the desired interior conditions is large.

This chapter features a selection of six desert towns in the Negev region of Israel. Statistical data are listed for comparing the state of development of these towns to the region in which they are located, and to the rest of the country. A short overview of the physical layout of each settlement and a short historical background is provided. Unique features and appearances typical to the towns are documented in photographs.