HUMAN-ECOLOGY AND THE ALBEDO EFFECT IN AN ARID ENVIRONMENT

The results of a comparison of agricultural settlement and land-use an d local precipitation patterns in the arid region of the Arava in Isra el indicated that as the number of settlements and the area of cultiva ted land has increased since the 1950s, the albedo effect in the regio n has decreased, and the amounts of precipitation at the first October rains have increased. It is suggested that the albedo effect in deser t areas is influenced by extended agricultural land-use.