Welcome
The Global Collaboratory for Drylands and the City is a joint venture of six strategically located and internationally known research institutions concerned with issues of urbanization and the sustainable economic development of drylands. The Global Collaboratory provides its participating institutions an organizational vehicle for more effective research, education, and problem solving on a global scale.
Our interest lies at the intersection of three fields: drylands ecology, urban planning, and economic development. Our motto might be “Creating economic opportunity through the environmentally sustainable urban development of arid lands.”
We believe that global phenomena, including climate change, population growth, urbanization, economic and technological development, and the depletion of natural resources such as oil and fresh water have a substantial and differential impact on arid lands, with crucial implications for sustainable living and the security of people and nations living on dry lands.
We believe that arid lands also have special resources for sustainable living that, when well-understood, can be tapped to achieve their prosperous and sustainable economic development.
By bringing together the intellectual resources, research infrastructure, and access to field sites across the planet’s drylands, the members of the Global Collaboratory are working to realize the power of research collaboration to address the problems of the 21st century.
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