The growing menace of desertification points ominously to the need for better ways to use the scarce renewable resources of the arid and marginal regions of the world and to thus enhance their prospects for economic and social development. Though much scientific and technical research on arid lands has been conducted in recent years, strategies still are needed to incorporate scientific knowledge into the regional planning process. Responding to that need, the authors of this book--the result of an international conference held by the Applied Chemistry Research Center (CIQA) and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)--integrate various perspectives on the evaluation of natural resources in arid and semiarid zones, analyze development options, and discuss systems analysis tools that could be important for the management of technology. The contributors encourage the use of systems analysis to help unite the various groups that will participate in the massive incorporation of scientific and technological information into arid zone development during the 1980s.