Rehabilitation of a Historic Wetland - Restorative Redevelopment of Devastated Ecocultural Landscapes - page 80

FIGURE 7.6 ( Continued ) Interpretive signage, destroyed wetland, mud pans, salt encrusta-
tion, and surviving xeric haleophyte plants.

• Establish guidelines for agricultural development in the Azraq Basin in

order to minimize the use of water through altering cropping patterns.

• Investigate the groundwater resources in the basin, particularly in relation

to measuring the extent of salt intrusion into the aquifer consequent with
water withdrawal (see chapters 18 and particularly 21 for more about arid-
land water and salt management).

• To move beyond the short-term solution of simply pumping water back to

the basin through providing support for long-term research on conservation
and initiating a management plan for the basin in the style of those devel-
oped for other RSCN-protected areas in Jordan (see chapter 16).

The main operational objectives in the Azraq Management Plan of 1998-2002
were (1) to establish and maintain the diversity and abundance of key species char-
acteristic of the area within the reserve, and (2) to restore and maintain a range of
habitats characteristic of the area within the reserve through many different activi-
ties such as cleaning and enlarging the open-water bodies as well as through creat-
ing new areas of water. Rehabilitation has proceeded through stages: some water
has already been pumped back (Figure 7.7) with the result being that 10 percent of
the original area of the wetlands have returned (Figure 7.8), and alternative water
sources have begun to be investigated to augment the return of water to the system.
Another objective was to help ensure land uses within the Azraq Basin that would
be ecologically sustainable and hence help to replenish the upper aquifer. This included
working with farmers to minimize their extraction of water and working with the gov-
ernment to try to reduce the degree of pumping to the major cities. As well, plans were
formulated to conserve and study the archaeological history of the reserve.