Agriculture, Recreation, Water Quality and Nature Protection in the Hula Valley, Israel

The anxious search for agricultural income resources, and assurance of the national water supply in the northern newly created state of Israel initiated the national project of the Hula Drainage. The implementation of this project was accompanied as of today by research and monitoring of the ecological trait aimed at crop harvest improvement in the Hula valley and prevention of water quality deterioration in Lake Kinneret. Forty years later a reclamation project to improve the peat soil property and renovate the hydrological system was carried out. This book documents the scientific research carried out during this mega-ecological project. Several issues of the ecological renovation and its impact on the Hula valley management and water quality in lake Kinneret are presented in this book. The advantage and contribution of a newly created shallow lake Agmon-Hula to nutrient dynamics, and hydrological control, accompanied by avian presence, (among others, Cranes, Storks, Pelicans, Flamingoes) and plants renewal which enhanced, tourism; potential impact of nitrogen and sulfate migration from the Hula valley on the Kinneret water quality; the role of climate change on the ecology of the Hula Valley and the Kinneret nutrient availabilities and phytoplankton community; the subterranean migration of water and nutrients and water loss. Further proposals for future development are under consideration. This book presents a comprehensive practical management implementation of a long-term ecological project. Results of scientific and monitoring research which followed the project implementation benefit the international and national communities.

Auteur

Professor Moshe Gophen studied Biology and Limnology in the Hebrew University Jerusalem and specialized as a Senior scientist and director in the Kinneret Limnological Laboratory of the Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research Co. Ltd. The author expanded his scientific education through international collaborative projects in Limnology and wetlands ecology with scientists in Egypt, Germany, Brazil, China, Mexico, Kenya, and USA. The author's practical usage of his scientific education in limnology and wetlands ecology was implemented as the Hula Reclamation Project`s scientific coordinator and chair-person of the Hula committee. The scholar history of his scientific education initiated scientific publications (244 papers, 3 books) and academic national and international lecturing and student supervisions.