Reconstructing the Landscape of the Past in the Agricultural Terraces of the City of Avdat

Ancient agricultural terraces and runoff harvesting installations in the Negev Highlands, Israel, offer unprecedented insights into environmental conditions during the middle Holocene. These structures, built between the 3rd–4th centuries CE and maintained for 6–7 centuries before abandonment after the 10th century, document over a millennium of land degradation and soil erosion. Using high-resolution 3-D data, researchers reconstructed the landscape's evolution from pre-anthropogenic intervention through centuries of cultivation to the present-day erosion phase. This study provides rare long-term measures of siltation and erosion rates in arid environments, enhancing understanding of environmental change mechanisms. Additionally, it offers valuable insights for soil conservation strategies, sustainable desert inhabitation, and protecting world-heritage installations, making it highly relevant amid global efforts to combat soil erosion.

Arav, R., Filin, S., & Avni, Y. (2019). RECONSTRUCTING THE LANDSCAPE OF THE PAST IN THE AGRICULTURAL TERRACES OF THE CITY OF AVDAT. The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, XLII-2/W15, 117–124. https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-xlii-2-w15-117-2019