In a previous post here https://steemit.com/travel/@archbitsmith/making-a-desert, I described how the northern boundary of Israel's Negev Desert is defined roughly by the aridity line, where average annual rainfall is 200mm. The Bedouin nomads rely on livestock, which graze on scarce desert vegetation. They tend to deplete an area of vegetation, particularly if larger populations are confined to smaller areas, contributing to desertification. Jewish farmers, on the other hand, use advanced irrigation to grow crops in arid zones. Shade from plants cools the earth, slowing evaporation, and reversing desertification. My conclusion was that desert-dwelling nomadic peoples tend to expand the desert, while sedentary agrarian peoples tend to expand farmland.
Continuing on the same theme, I've focused on the transitional zone between desert and farmland. Cereal crops require a minimum of 200mm of annual rainfall, so the line where annual rainfall is 200mm can be used to define the boundary of the desert. This line shifts from year to year depending on weather. I’ve drawn the locations of the aridity line between 1975 and 2009. Since this project is focused on the center of the transition zone, I located the average location of the aridity line, and represented lines to the north and south as translucent white regions. Thus, I’ve mapped the aridity line as a strip fading to white on either side.
With climatic conditions as a backdrop, I’ve represented land use in this region. In the western part of the strip, with the land firmly under Israeli control, farmland is pushing southward into the desert. The land is heavily farmed down to about ten kilometers south of the aridity line. To the east, the situation is reversed. Bedouin clans from further south have been relocated to the area bordering the West Bank around the aridity line. The region of wilderness is interspersed with Bedouin settlements.
Between the eastern agricultural zone and the western Bedouin zone is a bizarrely symmetrical mixing zone. This area is a patchwork of urban zones, farms, and Bedouin territory. The Jewish city of Be’er Sheva, with a population of some 200,000, lies just south of the aridity line. Be’er Sheva forms the corner of the front of farms pushing southward. Fifteen kilometers to the north is the recognized Bedouin city of Rahat. With a population of 66,000, Rahat is the only Bedouin city in Israel. Rahat marks the northwestern corner of the region of Bedouin habitation. A number of Bedouin clans have been relocated to Rahat, where they have adopted a sedentary lifestyle. Although encouraging the Bedouin to move to Rahat was an attempt to improve their lives by giving them access to services, adaptation has proved difficult, with high unemployment and crime rates.
My approach was to attempt to simplify and understand the dynamic between Israeli and Bedouin civilizations in the Negev transition zone. But a closer analysis has shown that the situation is complex, and defies simple description. The desert is not empty, the Bedouin is no longer a nomad, and well-intended infrastructure destroys ways of life.