Water history facets of landscape change in Israel/Palestine 1920-1970: a question of scale and periodization.

The history of water is closely intertwined with the history of landscape change, particularly in rural settings. These landscape changes, in turn, have profound impacts on the water resources. The landscape of Israel/Palestine has been transformed dramatically in the twentieth century. This transformation involved the widespread abstraction of water from their natural basins. Yet, studies of the modern history of Israel/Palestine have tended to separate the settlement and water histories. Here we examine the inter-relations between water resources and landscape change in Israel/Palestine between 1920 and 1970. In three case studies, selected to represent the different stages of water system development in this era, the relationships between landscape change and water resource development were examined. These allow us to critically analyze the scale and periodization at which previous studies were conducted, suggesting that a more nuanced area-sensitive periodization is called for when water and landscape inter-relations are analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]