Erosion in Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria-geology

The ancient lands of Canaan, Phoenicia, and Syria have long had sedentary populations and established, cultivated agricultures. Cultivation was restricted initially to gently sloping lowland areas, with flocks and herds utilizing the steeper-sloping lands as range. The grad ual encroachment of cultivation on the steeper lands and the reduction of protective native cover by overgrazing and timber harvesting increased runoff, erosion, and sedimentation.

The Phoenicians were among the first people to experience severe erosion on steep cultivated slopes. They found that bench terraces made by constructing stone walls on the contour and leveling the soil above them reduced water erosion and made irrigation on steeply sloping land possible. The ancient terraces in this region are still being cultivated successfully. Large soil losses have occurred from nonterraced sloping land through the years.

Amrams-Pillars(Israel)

Extremely severe erosion has occurred on more than a million acres of rolling limestone soils between Antskye (Antioch), now in Turkey, and Allepo, in northern Syria. From 3 to 6 ft (1 to 2 m) of soil has been removed. Half of the upland soil area east of the Jordan River and around the Sea of Galilee has been eroded down to bedrock. Much of the eroded material was deposited in the valleys, where it is still being cultivated. Even these floodplain soils are subject to erosion, however, and gullies are cutting ever deeper into them. Archaeologists found the former city of Jerash buried on a floodplain under as much as 13 ft (4 m) of erosional debris.

cave-waterfall, gorge(Lebanon)

Some arid regions, such as the Sinai Peninsula, have been so severely overgrazed that the land is cut by extremely large gullies, despite low rainfall. Winds severely eroded the soil between the gullies, but as stones of various sizes were exposed, a closely fitted desert pavement formed that now prevents further wind damage. (See Figure 5–1.) The productive capacity of the soil has greatly deteriorated. As a result, population in many sections has been drastically reduced by starvation and emigration. Some areas that formerly produced food for export to the Roman and Greek empires now cannot produce enough to feed the small indigenous population.

Some authorities blame the decline in productivity, particularly in the drier sections, on a change of climate, but agricultural scientists are convinced that the climate has not changed sufficiently to account for this decline. They believe that soil loss due to water and wind erosion is the root of the problem (Le Houerou, 1976).

In spite of the damage done to the soils in this region, there is still hope for cultivation agriculture. Burgeoning population has forced the Israelis to produce as much food as possible locally. They are cultivating much more land than was ever tilled in their country previously, and with good results in spite of the dry climate. They are employing excellent farming practices, including the use of terraces and other soil and water conservation measures.

Geomorphology is a such interesting subject. By  the use of geomorphology we can do many structural work in easy way.