ABSTRACT
Section 1 comprises eight chapters that deal with background topics that are important to address prior to undertaking the comprehensive restorative redevelopment of the Iraqi marshlands and other landscapes devastated by conict or natural disasters. Together these chapters address fundamental concerns about the nature and culture of environmental restoration and environmental planning, as well as demonstrate how these themes have been approached in other successfully implemented projects. The lessons here are important: restoration is possibly the most rewarding yet most intellectually challenging of all forms of environmental management, land use planning is really just as much about managing mindscapes as it is about managing landscapes, and much can be learned from other desert wetland restoration projects that will be useful for the reparative work needed in Iraq.
