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Are there any prior examples of rehydrating the desert that have actually worked? (note: from an agricultural perspective, not as artificial oases turned into g

Are there any prior examples of rehydrating the desert that have actually worked? (note: from an agricultural perspective, not as artificial oases turned into gambling destinations :-). The question is in relation to the quality of the soil after millenia of arid conditions. The Nile valley and delta are historically fertile due to seasonal sedimentation, but that too has stopped with the Aswan High Dam [1] [1] https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-30216-4_5 https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-30216-4_...

igravious 4y ago
“China's efforts to halt the Gobi provide a blueprint for tackling desertification” https://www.unccd.int/news-stories/stories/chinas-efforts-halt-gobi-provide-blueprint-tackling-desertification https://www.unccd.int/news-stories/stories/chinas-efforts-ha...
thekid314 4y ago
Egypt's previous de-desertification project "Toshka" kinda of worked. It wasn't the massive job creator that it was sold as because most of the farming was very large scale and mechanized. But it was able to produce large amounts of high quality food that Egyptians rarely saw because it was more valuable for export. Here are some photos I shot of it for The National: https://www.daviddegner.com/photography/toshka/ https://www.daviddegner.com/photography/toshka/
hn_throwaway_99 4y ago
> Are there any prior examples of rehydrating the desert that have actually worked? As others have noted, there are large swaths of productive agriculture land in California that were, and would continue to be, giant deserts without extensive irrigation projects. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Valley https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Valley
- carlob 4y ago
  Yeah, that is true for now, but it's probably not going to work long term because of soil salinity. Some posit that the reason for the rise and fall of the various fertile crescent civilizations was due exactly to this. If you wanna know more about it Cadillac Desert is an excellent start.
blacksmith_tb 4y ago
The Loess Plateau in China comes to mind[1], gigantic scale, mostly manual labor. 1: https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2007/03/15/restoring-chinas-loess-plateau https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2007/03/15/restori...
- nologic01 4y ago
  This (and the other examples in comments) are somehow comforting, in the sense that they seem to suggest that soil processes are fairly reversible (though the effort required for achieving results in a reasonable timescale might be enormous).

igravious 4y ago

“China's efforts to halt the Gobi provide a blueprint for tackling desertification” https://www.unccd.int/news-stories/stories/chinas-efforts-halt-gobi-provide-blueprint-tackling-desertification https://www.unccd.int/news-stories/stories/chinas-efforts-ha...

thekid314 4y ago

Egypt's previous de-desertification project "Toshka" kinda of worked. It wasn't the massive job creator that it was sold as because most of the farming was very large scale and mechanized. But it was able to produce large amounts of high quality food that Egyptians rarely saw because it was more valuable for export. Here are some photos I shot of it for The National: https://www.daviddegner.com/photography/toshka/ https://www.daviddegner.com/photography/toshka/

hn_throwaway_99 4y ago

> Are there any prior examples of rehydrating the desert that have actually worked? As others have noted, there are large swaths of productive agriculture land in California that were, and would continue to be, giant deserts without extensive irrigation projects. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Valley https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Valley

carlob 4y ago
Yeah, that is true for now, but it's probably not going to work long term because of soil salinity. Some posit that the reason for the rise and fall of the various fertile crescent civilizations was due exactly to this. If you wanna know more about it Cadillac Desert is an excellent start.

blacksmith_tb 4y ago

The Loess Plateau in China comes to mind[1], gigantic scale, mostly manual labor. 1: https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2007/03/15/restoring-chinas-loess-plateau https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2007/03/15/restori...

nologic01 4y ago
This (and the other examples in comments) are somehow comforting, in the sense that they seem to suggest that soil processes are fairly reversible (though the effort required for achieving results in a reasonable timescale might be enormous).