The solution to Slow or Reverse Desertification
Part 1: Desertification
Some human activities have led to desertification. According to National, Geographic humans are the drivers to the transformation of drylands into deserts. They contribute to this by making formerly arable drylands into non-arable drylands. Population increase is a major cause associated with the rise in global temperatures, which have been found to raise the vulnerability of the planet to desertification. People are associated with land degradation in areas with low rainfall, which make about forty percent of the world’s terrestrial surface. These human activities need a solution to make these non-arable drylands productive.
Many bodies are in the race to seek solutions for desertification. These are the strategies that have been deployed to reverse desertification. According to the urban farm, some recommended solutions have been reasoned to work out. One of these solutions includes storm-water management, which entails human efforts and strategies that can be implemented to harvest enough water that can be used for irrigation. This harvested water can be utilized in activating a germination response in latent seeds and increase the growth of established vegetation. Additionally, people in the drylands should embark on holistic management to address both wild and domesticated grazing animals, who have proved to be a major cause of desertification. In order to achieve this humans are advised to do the right grazing, apply nitrogen sourced from animals, and hooves gently when tilling the land. This would ensure the regrowth of grass.
Groundwater pumping has been found to cause loss of water below the surface for agricultural and municipal uses, making smaller streams dry up. In Arizona, two major river systems have been greatly impacted by groundwater pumping. These two river systems are the San Pedro River in southern Arizona and the Verde River in northern Arizona. Of the two rivers San Pedro, which flows north toward Tucson from the Mexican border, is the most visible example of the impact of groundwater pumping in reducing river water levels. The decline of the water levels has impacted the lives of people and animals kept due to continued drought, also putting into danger some species.
Part 2: Local Conditions
In order to answer this question, my area of selection is California. In this state, it had a draught experience that lasted for 376 weeks. The draught began on December 27th, 2011, and ended on March 5th, 2019. During this draught experience, the most intense drought occurred on July 29th, 2014, affecting over half of the California land. This report was published by the U.S Drought Monitor (USDM), whose role is releasing draught maps, which is done every Thursday, depicting areas in the US that are currently in drought. The drought ended in the year 2019, thus the area is not currently in drought.
However, the intensity of drought varies from time to time and in place. Draught can either be moderate, severe, extreme, or exceptional. In this context, we will differentiate between extreme and exceptional drought. Starting with extreme drought is a condition characterized by livestock needing supplementary foods and horses sold. During extreme droughts, little pasture is left and there are difficulties in maintaining organic meat requirements. Also, federal water is inadequate to meet irrigation contracts, thus extracting supplemental groundwater becomes expensive. On the other hand, characteristics of exceptional draughts are much intense, these include fields being left fallow, vegetation yields decrease, and honey harvest is small. Besides, during this draught fire outbreaks are common and very costly, with many recreational activities being adversely affected.
According to the U.S Drought Monitor (USDM) report of March 18th, 2021, some regions in the United States experience droughts. Some of these regions experience abnormal drought, others moderate drought, others severe drought, extreme to exceptional drought. Some areas experiencing moderate drought include northern New York, Vermont, and Hampshire, Ohio. Other areas that experience drought includes the Virgin Islands, eastern Mainland Alaska, and Texas.
Sources:
Blasiak, R. (2012). Reversing Desertification with Livestock. ourworld. unu. edu, n-a.
https://www.urbanfarm.org/2019/02/10/reverserdesertification/
https://ourworld.unu.edu/en/reversing-desertification-with-livestock
https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/
