Islamic eco-systems a millennium ago supported farming in marginal desert environments but were largely abandoned. They could be sustainability models today
Islamic eco-systems a millennium ago supported farming in marginal desert environments but were largely abandoned. They could be sustainability models today
As global water resources become more strained, the insights gained from traditional agricultural systems could pave the way for the development of innovative, low-water-use agricultural practices to confront the growing challenges of water scarcity and food insecurity in arid and marginal regions.
A new study exploring traditional sunken groundwater-harvesting agroecosystems in coastal and inland sand (SGHAS) bodies of Israel, Iran, Egypt, Algeria, Gaza, and the Atlantic coast of Iberia offers fresh perspectives on ancient agricultural techniques that could inform modern sustainability practices.
The paper stems from an international workshop at Bar-Ilan University (BIU) in 2023 on continuity-discontinuity of ancient water-harvesting agricultural systems that resulted in a special issue in the journal Environmental Archaeology. This study on early Islamic (late 9th – early 12th century) Plot-and-Berm (P&B) agroecosystems located along Israel’s Mediterranean coast evolved into an investigation of the long-term viability of regional SGHAS as a sustainable agricultural model.
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