Abstract
About two billion rural individuals depend on agricultural systems associated with a high amount of risk and low levels of yield in the drylands of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Human activities, climate change and natural extreme events are the most important drivers of desertification. This phenomenon has occurred in many regions of Iran, particularly in the villages in the periphery of the central desert of Iran, and has made living in the oases so difficult that the number of abandoned villages is increasing every year. Land abandonment and land-use change increase the risk of desertification. This study aims to respond to the research questions: (i) does the planning of green infrastructures on the desert margin affect the distribution and balance of the population? (ii) how should the green belt be designed to have the greatest impact on counteracting desertification?, and (iii) does the design of productive landscape provide the solution? Through a wide-ranging and comprehensive approach, this study develops different scenarios for designing a new form of green belt in order to sustainably manage the issues of environmental protection, agricultural tradition preservation and desertification counteraction. This study proposes a new-traditional greenbelt including small low-cost and low-tech projects adapted to rural scale.
Highlights
Living in the desert margin implies the necessity to deal with several challenges in a changing environment
In desert and semi-desert areas, the short rainy season provides a limited opportunity for plant growth, especially food plants, and water scarcity is frequently coupled with soil salinity, which is not even less dangerous for plant growth [2]
With several centuries of poor management of natural resources and increasing anthropogenic pressures associated with rapid population growth, the degradation of natural resources, especially vegetation, and the abandonment of rural areas in favor of cities have caused the progressive advance of desertification [6]
Summary
Living in the desert margin implies the necessity to deal with several challenges in a changing environment. Rural settlements must guarantee the inhabitants agriculture for local supply, environmental quality and well-being [1], while at the same time fighting the phenomenon of desertification. Traditional agriculture over centuries has developed practices that enable farmers to better manage water resources and low soil fertility [3]. Traditional agricultural systems are the result of centuries of indigenous peoples’ experience of adapting to arid environmental conditions [4]. With several centuries of poor management of natural resources and increasing anthropogenic pressures associated with rapid population growth, the degradation of natural resources, especially vegetation, and the abandonment of rural areas in favor of cities have caused the progressive advance of desertification [6]
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