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Introduction The general land cover and use map of Palestine which is represented in the West Bank and Gaza Strip area indicates that about 53.3% of total area is classified as non-agricultural land (forests and semi natural bodies). Simultaneously, the area classified as an agricultural is representing about 37% only1 (Map1). Both agricultural and non-agricultural areas are susceptible to soil degradation although at different rates. The previous paper for Palestine presented in the context of MEDCOASTLAND project about land degradation explained how severe the land degradation problem is. The absence of the management for Palestinian natural resources for the last four decades, the high population growth rate (3.5-5.0%), centralization of peoples in smaller spots of land – as a result of the Israeli occupation, and the various Israeli colonizing activities like colony constructions, bypass roads and military bases, all the above have been increasing the pressure on natural resources in general, and soil in particular. However, this paper concentrates on how the Palestinians have been implementing income-product generating soil conservation practices that lead to the reduction of soil degradation. Soil management in Palestine has been affected greatly by the political conditions and the lack of awareness of the benefits of soil conservation management. This situation is rendering comprehensive natural resource management, which in turn, renders sustainable management and development. Despite all the constraints, agriculture is the most important economic enterprise in Palestine. Therefore, conservation and actions to increase production are of paramount significance. These actions are continuously adding new lands to agriculture and lead to soil conservation. The income-product generating actions have been increased dramatically since the establishment of the Palestinian National Authority. Although these actions expanded the areas of land under cultivation, serious soil degradation problems still occur. The most important income-product generation action leading to soil conservation is the land reclamation projects funded by the international community and implemented by Palestinian NGOs. This paper will display the core of these actions and implement some preliminary assessment of the physical (technical) and socio-economic aspects utilizing the GIS capabilities. The assessment would serve as an introductory estimation of the profitability of these actions and help in identifying the required next steps for a concise analysis and planning of comparable activities in the future.
Map1: General land use of the West Bank- Palestine.
Materials and Methods: The evaluation of the income-product generating soil conservation action in Palestine is done at two levels: the national and the farm scale. The income-product generating action considered in this case is the mechanical and manual land reclamation. The technical description will be applied to the West Bank as it represents about 95 of the whole area. The following sections exhibit these two levels: First: GIS analysis of the reclamation sites suitability2. The majority of the land reclamation projects implemented in Palestine displayed geographically on map 2 were supervised by United Nations Development program (UNDP). It represents an area of 7268 dunums (1 ha = 10 dunums). It represents about 0.13 % of the West Bank land area. The main aim of these projects is to increase the agricultural land available to Palestinians. It involves mainly mechanical reclamation leading to the formation of terraces on the hills. A correlation of these sites with the agricultural land use, built-up area, climate, and geomorphology and soil erosion risk would be established to evaluate the degree of its suitability, effectiveness in conserving soil and profitability generation at the national level.
Map 2: Reclamation Sites in the West Bank, Palestine.
Reclamation Sites Versus Agricultural Land Use: Map 3 shows the reclamation sites displayed on the general land use map of the West Bank. It is clear that almost all sites were implemented in the area classified as agricultural. The main reason for that is the easy accessibility of Palestinian to lands closer to their urban sites. This is imposed by the political situation that can be described as follows: According to agreements between Israelis and Palestinians, W&G land is divided into A, B and C classified areas with different control authorities and regulations (map 3). Area A should be under full Palestinian control, area B is under Palestinian civilian control and Israeli security control, area C is under full Israeli control. The estimated area of a land is 722 km2 (12%); B land is about 1318 km2 (22.6%). Also, there is about 3% of the land assigned as a nature reserve extending over Hebron and Bethlehem Districts. The total land area that the Palestinians can control is about 38% of the area of the West Bank. The remaining 62% (C area) is under full Israeli control. This area is occupied by colonies, closed military zones, military camps or declared as nature reserves. Palestinian villages and hamlets are also lying within this area. It is evident according to this situation how difficult is managing the natural resources taking in consideration that the Palestinian controlled area is mainly urban with small area of agricultural use. United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and other funding agencies could not fund any reclamation project without the endorsement of Israeli Authorities in areas classified as area C. Reclaimed sites would be threatened in the future by the urban crawl as can be deduced from the land use map; therefore, choosing sites for reclamation is recommended in areas that should be permanently designated as agricultural area.
Reclamation Sites versus Climate: The climate of the West Bank is traditionally described as Mediterranean, which is characterized by winter rain and summer drought. However, there is a great diversity in this climate as shown in the map. This diversity ranges from extremely arid to humid according to De Martonne aridity index classification for arid areas.
The total area of extremely arid, hyper arid and arid climates is 2461 km2 comprising about 44% of the land area of the West Bank; the area of the semi arid part is 1682 km2 (about 30%); the sub humid area is 1435 km2 (25%) and the humid area is 67 km2 (1%). The area suffering from the severe aridity (44%) is located at the eastern and far southern part of the West Bank. This area, which is lightly populated, should form the strategic reserve of agricultural land for Palestinians. However, this degree of aridity imposes hard restrictions on utilizing this land for agriculture in the absence of control on it. The semi arid, which is promising agricultural land is unfortunately suffering from urbanization sprawl according the population distribution; the same situation is applicable to the sub humid and humid areas (26%) which is heavily populated. The vast area of arid climate provoked the salinization process that is the main driving force to desertification in this area. Most of the reclamation sites as shown in the map were implemented in the areas classified as sub-humid and semi arid. Although these zones are prone to soil degradation, they are the least susceptible to degradation among other climatic zones. Reclamation Sites Versus geomorphology: Although it is a comparatively small area, the West Bank is characterized also by a large degree of variation in topography. Its topography in characterized by its hilly nature that also contributes to land degradation. The elevation ranges between 1022 m above sea level to 400 m below sea level. The land system classification of the West Bank (see map) displays the diversity in the geomorphology of this area blended with climate. From the DTM background data and Landform pattern classification, the main topographic features (harsh topography) affecting soil degradation (erosion) at the system scale would be described as follows: Jordan Valley (434 km2 ), which is represented in one system, has badlands (91 km2 ) and terraces (118 km2 ).
Eastern Area (2060 km2) that is represented in systems: Far and Mid Northeastern Heights and Jerusalem Desert have moderately steep (498 km2 ) and steep hills (549 km2). Jerusalem Hills (818 km2) that is represented in the systems: Jerusalem-Ramallah Heights and Jerusalem-Hebron Foothills has moderately steep hills (592 km2) and steep hills (55 km2 ). Hebron Mountains which is represented in systems: Hebron Heights and Aldahiriya Hills have moderately steep hills (291 km2 ), steep hills (190 km2) and steep low hills (83 km2). Nablus Hills and the Semi Coastal Zone (1484 km2) which is represented in Nablus Heights, Qalqilya Hills, Tulkarm Hills and Jenin Plain has moderately steep hills (262 km2), steep hills (48 km2 ). Steep hills are considered since they are the most landform pattern prone to soil degradation. The total area of these hills in addition to the badlands and terraces in Jordan Valley is 2514 km2 which about 44.5% of the West Bank land area. Most of this area is intersecting with the extremely arid, hyper arid and arid area (1474 km2). This area (26% of the West Bank) is strongly exposed to wind and water erosion and salinization. Reclamation Sites Versus Soil Erosion Risk: It is the most destructive degradation process to soils in the West Bank. Almost all types of soil erosion are taking place in the West Bank. All these types are accelerated by human activities. Water erosion is the most important type that is taking place in all of its types (sheet, rill, gully and tunnel) depending on the geomorphology and rain intensity. Soil erosion risk map using Wichmeier formula for rainfall erosion losses was prepared utilizing various climatic and topographic factors. It is severe, as shown in the map, in the mountainous areas which are exposed to heavy rainfall. Also, soil erosion is clear in areas with very steep slopes and low vegetation cover as the case of Eastern Heights. Areas with more than 1 tons/ha of soil loss are comprising more than 50% of the West Bank area. Looking at the soil and soil erosion risk maps of the West Bank, it is clear that brown lithosols, regosols loessial arid brown soils are the most types of soil prone to erosion. These soil types are abundant in the Eastern Slopes and Jerusalem Wilderness where steep and moderately steep slopes are the determinant factor in addition to the absence or scarcity of vegetation cover. Soil texture also plays an important role in the erodibility, for example, the surface horizon texture of brown lithosols, regosols, loessial arid brown, and loessial serozems is comparatively coarse and thus more readily detached by rain drop splash. In the case of steep slopes with certain aspects, even Terra Rossa and brown rendzina soils (which are clayey) are exposed to high degree of erosion. Wind erosion is also taking place in the dry and coarse textured eastern parts of the West Bank.
Reclamation Sites Versus Water Scarcity: The scarcity of water and the deterioration of its quality is a major driving force for land degradation in Palestine. Palestine is among the countries with the scarcest renewable water resources per capita due to both natural and artificial constraints, amounting to only 100 cubic per capita per year. This is far below the per capita available in other countries in the Mediterranean and even in the world. At present water demands exceeds the available water supply. Surface water resources in the West Bank are very limited. The only permanent river that would be considered as a source of surface water is Jordan River. However, the Palestinians have no access to its water. The major source of fresh water supply in the West Bank and Gaza Strip is the groundwater. The West Bank has three aquifers: the western, northeastern and eastern. It is estimated that the total renewable groundwater resources in the West Bank is between 590 and 690 MCM/year. Part of this potential is being exploited either naturally (springs) or artificially (wells). There are about 360 major wells in the West Bank mainly belonging to Palestinian and were drilled before 1967. The total annual groundwater abstraction in the West bank is about 122 MCM. 63.8 MCM is pumped from 228 agricultural wells and 43 domestic wells; the remaining 57.3 MCM is pumped from 49 wells controlled by Israelis and utilized for both domestic and agriculture. The Palestinian water supply has a constant value due to Israel’s policy of maintaining the 1967 level of water supply. Restrictions were imposed on the amount withdrawn by Palestinians, while new wells were established to provide water to Israeli colonies*. The major water problem in the West Bank is the unequal distribution of water between Palestinians and Israelis due to Israeli control over water resources. The West Bank, as can be seen on the climate map, has abundant rain in its northern and western parts, while land resources are rather limited there. On the other hand it has a relative abundance of land in the southern and eastern where precipitation is low. Thus one of the first endeavors the Government of Palestine should undertake, immediately after its establishment, is to reduce the natural water deficiency in its southern and eastern parts. Thus, with regard to the management of water resources in the region, new approaches will have to be examined, and if necessary, new water resource development and management plans will have to be developed. Income-Product Generating Actions Anti-Soil Conservation: There is an income-product generating action which is anti soil conservation, it is overgrazing. Its devastated effect is reflected in the calls from religious people: "Those who rear small cattle and cut down trees… will see no sigh of blessing". Another anti soil conservation action which is income-product generating is the manufacture of charcoal and the burning of lime leading to the destruction of bushes and shrubs. There is a city in Palestine called Um el Fahem "the mother of caol" which derives its name from the charcoal burning. Today, all trace of bushes and shrubs has disappeared completely from the vicinity owing to this lucrative industry. Only in the last decades, introducing oil burners for lime kilns lessen this phenomenon. Results and Discussion The GIS analysis of the reclamation sites indicate that the distribution of these projects is not based at all on the physical and topographic data or within land use planning framework. It is clear that the selection of these sites is not taking soil conservation or other environmental factors as a priority. As for the preliminary assessment of the socio-economic aspects of the land reclamation projects, it is indicated that the investing capital in land reclamation seems to be profitable within large range of assumptions. The evaluation of the comparative profitability of investments in land reclamation requires knowledge on the profitability of potential alternative investments. The positive Net Present Worth just indicates that investing in land reclamation is better than not using the capital at all. Conclusions It is clear that land reclamation as an income-product generating action for soil conservation is done randomly without any consideration to physical and environmental factors. The need for land suitability classification for reclamation to take in consideration all the above-mentioned factors is desperately needed at the national level. Cost benefit analysis is a tool of partial analysis and thus does not consider the holistic framework of the evaluated activity. The results are largely based on assumptions and conclusions that are indicators that require verification by more concise studies. References
1. Ahmad Noubani et al., Land Use/Cover of the West Bank and Gaza Strip – Palestine, Land Research Center, 2000. 2. Basim Dudeen, Land Suitability for Reclamation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Land Research Center, Jerusalem, 2001. 3. Kayed Janazreh, Heinz-Peter Wolff, Preliminary assessment of socio-economic aspects of the UNDP land reclamation projects, Palestinian Authority, Jerusalem, 2003. 4. Land Research Center, Reclamation Department Archive. |
