Evaluation of the Growth of Australian atriplex in a Semi-arid Region in Libya Using Rainwater Harvesting Techniques PDF

Keywords

Australian artiplex, water harvesting, techniques, contour lines, Negarim Basin, Libya

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the growth of Australian atriplex in the semi-arid western parts of Libya, using two water harvesting techniques, namely the contour Ridges and the Negarim Basins Techniques. The criteria used to assess the efficiency of these techniques included measuring the trees' height, circumference, length of the canopy, and maturity. The experiment was conducted in three catchment areas od 10.2, 12.5 and 15.5 m2 for each of the two techniques with three replications. The size of the catchment area was selected based on the crop water requirement, size of the root zone, surface runoff fraction and mean annual rainfall in the region. The ratio of cultivated area to the catchment area was found to be 1:15. Evaluation of the growth of the Australian atriplex was made for two consecutive years. The results of the experiment indicated that the growth of the Australian atriplex in both techniques was superior than those planted outside the water harvesting system (control. However, the overall efficiency of each technique was different depending on technique used and the size of the catchment area, with Contour Ridges technique and the size of the catchment area has the largest effect on the trees growth