The Llano Estacado of the U.S. Southern High Plains: Environmental Transformation and the Prospect for Sustainability (Unu Studies on Critical Environmental Regions)

This volume presents an environmental, social and economic history of the Llano Estacado region of the US Southern High Plains. It illustrates the tremendous changes in environment that occurred with the European settlement of the Plains. The development of a modern irrigation culture, dependent on non-renewable or exhaustible water resources, is detailed. The final chapter explores the future of the Llano, using a multiplicity of definitions of 'sustainability' and its opposite, 'criticality'. This book is part of the United Nations University Project on Critical Environmental Zones and expands one chapter from the interim volume of the Project, 'Regions at risk: comparisons of threatened environments'.Elizabeth Brooks is the author of 'The Llano Estacado of the U.S. Southern High Plains: Environmental Transformation and the Prospect for Sustainability (Unu Studies on Critical Environmental Regions)', published 2000 under ISBN 9789280810424 and ISBN 9280810421.