Abstract
The millenia-old oasis systems in the Western Hajar Mountains of Northern Oman have received widespread attention as models of sustainable irrigated agriculture in hyperarid Arabia. Given Oman’s rampant urbanization, growing scarcity of water and skilled labour, we quantified chances in water use, land use, and land cover between 2007 and 2018 using a rare time-series approach of detailed GIS-based crop mapping. Results from satellite image analysis and comprehensive ground truthing showed that urban areas grew from 206 ha in 2009 to 230 ha in 2014 and 252 ha in 2018. Throughout this decade, irrigated areas in backyards and front-house gardens of the town, planted largely to tree crops and vegetables, increased from 13.5 to 23.3 ha. Between 2007 and 2018 the actively used area of the studied oasis systems declined by 2.0% and the share of perennial crops without underplanting by 5.1%, while land under agroforestry increased by 2.1% and fallow land by 3.5%. Rising water demand of the sprawling town Sayh Qatanah led to terraces of Al ‘Ayn and Ash Sharayjah now being partly irrigated with treated wastewater which accelerated the abandonment of the old settlement structures. The labour- and water use efficiency-driven transformation of the Al Jabal Al Akhdar oasis agriculture into increasingly market-oriented landuse systems questions its function as example of sustainable, bio-cultural heritage of Arabia.
Highlights
Most of the Sultanate of Oman’s territory is characterized by a hyperarid desert climate with irregular precipitation averaging 80–100 mm whereby 58% to 83% occur between December and A pril[1]
The study area comprises the modern settlement of Sayh Qatanah (57° 36′ 30′′ E, 23° 22′ 10′′ N; 2000 m a.s.l.), a profusely growing modern town on the Sayq Plateau heading the Wadi Muaydin
This spatial shift of population and related irrigated agricultural land led to a raise of annual freshwater consumption from borewells drilled to 300 m depth in Sayh Qatanah from 310,200 m3 in 2007 to 685,154 m3 in 2018
Summary
Most of the Sultanate of Oman’s territory is characterized by a hyperarid desert climate with irregular precipitation averaging 80–100 mm whereby 58% to 83% occur between December and A pril[1]. Initial surveys of Luedeling and B uerkert[11] investigated the hydrological sustainability of the high mountain oases of Al Jabal Al Akhdar, and attributed farmer-reported water shortages to land use changes In this context, the rapid development and subsequent water needs of the new city of Sayh Qatanah on the Sayq Plateau heading the mountain oases was identified as the greatest threat to oasis sustainability making it dependent on additional water pumped up from the lowlands. The rapid development and subsequent water needs of the new city of Sayh Qatanah on the Sayq Plateau heading the mountain oases was identified as the greatest threat to oasis sustainability making it dependent on additional water pumped up from the lowlands This claim was confirmed by subsequent studies of Al-Rawahi et al.[24] and Al-Kalbani et al.[25]. In particular we were interested in quantifying (i) the extent, consequences, and likely causes of putative changes in crop distribution and frequency on the traditional terraces of the “hanging gardens” and (ii) the spatial distribution and quantitative changes of irrigated land and water use in the old and new settlements
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