To provide access to relevant research resources, either directly or by supplying links to other relevant websites. These are in addition to the sites referenced on the active researchers list (the Who's doing what? page).

Don't forget to look also at the galleries of pictures that can be accessed through the IMAGES button on the navigation button on the left.

Yet again, please about useful links and resources.

Global Change (electronic edition) seeks to familiarize the public with the issues associated with climate change and ozone depletion. Since July 1996, the magazine has been published by the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security (Oakland, California). The publication originally was launched in July 1995 by the University of Maryland's Center for Global Change.

Donated by Tim Demko, ExxonMobil Upstream Research, USA. File last updated 17 Jan. 2001. A downloadable file in Rich Text Format (.rtf). Thanks to Tim for this generosity - a good starting point for anyone getting into this area of research.

Created and maintained by Martin Stokes on his alluvial fans website.

Created by Bill Johnson (Arizona State University) and Marina Oliver (Texas Tech University).

WARNING: these may not be the playa lakes you, a drylands researcher, have in mind - these playa lakes, mainly on the High Plains of Texas, are generally wet. I included this site (a) to illustrate the confusion in the use of the term playa lake; (b) because the references list they supply embraces ALL types of playa, and the site has many other links that might be helpful; and (c) because it is an example of resource sharing that benefits us all, and I want to encourage more of this.

A brief summary of the terminology problem can be read in:
BRIERE, P.R. 2000. Playa, playa lake, sabkha: Proposed definitions for old terms. Journal of Arid Environments, 45, 1-7.

A site started by Vincent Kotwicki with information and pictures of Lake Eyre, Australia. Vincent has worked extensively on Lake Eyre and its catchment, particularly the hydrology, and he produced a book with the same title in 1986. As yet the site is a little sparse, though it has some interesting photos and links, and it also has a discussion forum.

US Department of Agriculture facility in New Mexico, USA, one of 22 NSF run sites which are part of the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) project. LTER focuses on changes in the distribution of soil resources as an index of the impact of vegetation change--desertification--on semiarid lands. Jornada is now also being used to study soil and sediment transport across bajada surfaces (run by universities of Leicester (UK) and Kings College London (UK) and State University of New York (USA)).

US Dept. of Agriculture facility at Tombstone in Arizona, USA, which has yielded much data on the nature of precipitation patterns, runoff, overland flow, and ephemeral stream hydrology in small catchments.

The USGS have carried out an intensive study over several years in the Rio Puerco (New Mexico, USA) drainage. A key focus was to gain understanding of the arroyo phenomenon (sudden entrenchment) of channels in drylands. This site has in-depth analysis, historic hydrological and climate data, and erosion rates. Particularly intriguing are the pairs of photos of the same location taken many years apart (up to 100), achieved by revisiting sites for which there were already photos in the USGS archive. See also the repeat photography in Arizona.

Repeat photography at gaging stations on a variety of rivers across the state of Arizona, from 1910 to present, with commentary on each view. See also the pairs of photographs in the Rio Puerco drainage.

This site contains a growing list of web sites of interest for sedimentary geologists. It lists persons, organisations, official and informal research groups, and other web sites of general use.

A scientific society whose focus is the study and management of inland waters. Have written a proposed Dryland Rivers Policy Document (with lots of nice pictures) setting out their concerns that dryland rivers are not being looked after or studied adequately.

The sponsors of the World Atlas of Desertification (1992).

Undertakes wide-ranging research on climate, hydrology and geomorphology of arid regions, especially Nevada itself. Has major age-dating facility (especially luminescence and ESR).

Largest organisation specialising in research of the Quaternary period. Emphasis on geomorphology and age-dating. To make proper use of studies on 'modern' rivers, we must know fully their evolutionary history through the Quaternary.

A centre for arid land studies. Produced excellent summary book on the ephemeral rivers of Namibia (i.e. just about all of its rivers!) JACOBSON, P.J., JACOBSON, K.M. & SEELY, M.K. 1995. Ephemeral rivers and their catchments: sustaining people and development in Western Namibia.

Conducts research into dryland environments and peoples, and is an independant research centre of the University of Sheffield. Collaborative research is conducted with institutions in Europe, Africa, North America, Asia and Australia. SCIDR also provides a luminescence dating facility.

The infamous MrSID site - a great global image-searching database – to use, zoom to the image you want on the map and then click "select image" to see the orthorectified Landsat images, which are zoomable, etc. To get the maximum flexibility from this site, you need a special web-browser plug-in to view these maps - this is becuase they make use of a fractals-based system to produce resolution-independent image files. But it will work without this plugin -click the HELP link at the bottom of the first page for more information.

‘Earth as Art’ USGS images. Small number of great images of the World's natural features.

Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER). Has some unusal but stimulating views (e.g. taken at night) of places such as Death Valley and the dunes of Arabia.

NASA portal to the Earth Observing System concept is the centerpiece of NASA's Earth Science Enterprise (ESE) (website called Destination Earth). It is composed of a series of satellites, a science component, and a data system supporting a coordinated series of polar-orbiting and low inclination satellites for long-term global observations of the land surface, biosphere, solid Earth, atmosphere, and oceans. EOS will enable an improved understanding of the Earth as an integrated system.

Run by the Earth Science & Image Analysis group at the Johnson Space Center, this portal gives access to the many images taken by astronauts, especially on Shuttle missions. Most are oblique-angle views. There are a LOT of images here, many of dubious quality (basically every single frame shot is here, regardless of quality). But be patient, there are some real gems here!

Interpreted space images from an out-of-print NASA publication edited by Nicholas M. Short, Sr. and Robert W. Blair, Jr. Not always the best images, but each with a detailed and useful explanation. Fluvial section (by Victor Baker) particularly good.

A searchable directory of images, visualizations and animations of the Earth. A modest number of good quality, annotated images with commentary.

The LPI is hosted by the Universities Space Research Association in Houston, Texas. This list points to a variety of sites for planetary images. It includes general sites, sites specific to particular events or missions, and a few other sites of related interest.

Coloured (and greyscale) surface elevation maps for each state of the USA. Really shows up major landforms well. The parent site additionally has some fascinating images of other features and sea-surface temperatures, well worth an exploration.

Very large online collection of maps of the World and countries. Great for location maps, less so for relief maps and suchlike, but still the best there is.

World resources maps for various things, mostly agricultural/economic. Ever wanted to know, for example, the density of chickens per square kilometre in Indonesia? Now you can find out.