ABSTRACT
Reclamation and efficient utilization of the deserts' natural resources were employed to deal with such problems as water supply, road and settlement construction, and the fixation and afforestation of sandy regions. The basic water supply in the deserts comes from local waters such as fresh underground water and runoff water. There are many ways to harvest rainwater in the desert, the most efficient being to store runoff water in natural underground strata, where fresh rainwater drains down to form a kind of lens floating on top of the subterranean salt water. Climate and soil conditions in irrigated desert regions in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.) allow for the cultivation and good harvests of various crops. Investigations have revealed the genetic and paleogeographic peculiarities of desert soils and have determined their similarities and dissimilarities to the soils of neighboring deserts, thus making possible the formulation of a unified classification of desert soils of the U.S.S.R.
