A Synthesis of Climatic Data with Specific Interest in the Precipitation Record

Whilst arid lands can be resource rich, this is not the case in eastern Jordan and the fact that the area suffers from a large water deficit compounds the human and ecological hardship. The removal of what little vegetation there was, associated with population pressure and more specifically over-grazing, is held to be the major cause of land degradation (Farhan and Mikbel 1986; Agnew and Anderson 1992).