Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
impacts on people now than in the past. The
answer to this question appears to be yes. In
particular, traditional societies in drought-prone
regions of Africa had developed sustainable
drought-coping mechanisms, which have been
compromised by post-1960s modernisation and
development. The Kenyan Akamba provide a
notable example. Their homeland is centred on the
Machakos Hills to the east of Nairobi. This is a
semi-arid region with about 300-600 mm of
rainfall, most of which falls in two wet seasons; the
area is drought-prone. Traditional Akamba
drought-coping mechanisms were to:
of Peru in 1998). This is probably because water
surplus in not considered to be a serious issue in
drylands by the wider public. However, flooding
is a significant hazard and does lead to land
degradation through increased soil erosion by
water and waterlogging.
FUTURE GEOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH
ON DESERTIFICATION
Geographers have an important role in
desertification studies, first, because its complex
nature provides fertile territory for holistic
research approaches and, second, because it often
focuses on population-environment relationships.
However, both the holistic and people-
environment approaches rely on an integrated
model of geography, which currently appears at
odds with a discipline that tends towards increased
specialisation in many of its sub-disciplines and the
growing engagement with qualitative approaches
in human geography.
Far from being a problem, this diversification
within geography strengthens our hand in the
multidisciplinary research approaches that
characterise the largest, well-funded international
initiatives in desertification in three ways. First, the
holistic theme will remain strong in geography,
providing geographers with a competitive
advantage over many other disciplines, particularly
in our ability to form and lead multidisciplinary
teams. Second, the rise of qualitative research
methods is potentially important for household
and village-level studies on natural resources use
in dryland communities and on the impacts of
resource degradation, which have often relied on
shaky statistical data in the past. Third, many
investigations require specialist knowledge within
a holistic framework. To list all of the specialists
required to investigate a desertification issue is akin
to listing the academic departments in a large
university! Nonetheless, a number of specialist
areas within geography are recognised
internationally for their work on desertification-
related problems. Those with the greatest
(research) impact are:
•
have a mixed agro-pastoral farming system
that minimised the risk of exposure to the
severe climate fluctuations by not relying on
a single crop but spreading their risks by
cultivating a variety of crops and having stock
as well;
•
reduce cattle numbers in drought years by
sending them temporarily to other villages in
regions not suffering drought and receiving
cattle from others in wet years; and
•
diversify the household/village economic
base by actively trading; this was possible by
virtue of historical trade routes between the
East African highlands and Indian Ocean
coast, which passed through their territory.
These traditional drought-coping mechanisms
have broken down with the economic and social
changes that have characterised Kenya in the late
colonial and post-independence eras, leaving the
region's inhabitants less able to cope with drought.
Our understanding of the causes of drought has
advanced because of developments in climate
modelling. In particular, research into global
teleconnections between sea-surface temperatures
and drought is important. The El Niño Southern
Oscillation (ENSO) has been linked to droughts,
e.g. in India (Kiladis and Sinha, 1991), Australia
(van Dijk
et al
. 1983), northeast Brazil (Chu 1991)
and the Sahel (Lamb and Peppler 1991). Less
prominence has been given to the impacts of
severe flooding in drylands, some of which can be
linked to ENSO events (e.g. the coastal drylands
