Irrigation

Irrigation allows us to grow enough food to feed the world, but it does have negative impacts too. This Getting Started looks at the benefits and costs of irrigation, bringing together issues important across AS and A2 geography, in topics including food issues, managing hot desert environments, water conflicts and life on the margins.

A traditional water wheel, known as a noria, in Hama, Syria, which has been used since the thirteenth century to lift water from the river to local fields

Fresh water is one of the world’s most important natural resources. Much of it is used for irrigation, the artificial application of water to soil to enable the growth of crops. It is mainly used in the world’s dry and semi-arid areas where:

■ rainfall is low and evapotranspiration rates are high (e.g. the Nile Valley in Egypt)