428 THE FUTURE OF ARID LANDS 
is needed concerning the history of land use, especially agriculture, 
in arid and semi-arid regions. Information in this field has practical 
applications in land-use planning, and our present knowledge is 
very sketchy. The UNESCO Advisory Committee on Arid Zone 
Research is urged to consider means of furthering research on this 
subject and to consider the publication of a volume dealing with 
agriculture of the past in the arid and semi-arid lands of the world. 
3. Exploration is needed of possible new patterns of resource 
use and practice with local participation in the studies to insure 
the public understanding so necessary for achieving any change, 
even on a gradual basis. There is a tendency to encourage the 
maintenance of existing patterns, even when it is realized that 
existing patterns have been inherited from conditions quite dis- 
similar to those of the present. Land-use histories may be valuable 
in dramatizing climatic hazards; there is need for long-term 1m- 
provement in management; and even statistical data on climatic 
change can be effectively and convincingly presented if they are 
properly organized. 
Meteorology and Climatology 
4. The conference notes with satisfaction the recent action of 
the UNESCO Advisory Committee on Arid Zone Research in 
planning to devote the next arid lands symposium to climatologi- 
cal problems of arid lands and urges sponsorship of continued re- 
search on arid land climatology by the committee. 
5. It is recommended that the program of the International 
Geophysical Year, which previously emphasized polar observa- 
tions, be extended in 1957-58 to include, to the maximum extent 
possible, the arid belt of the world, and, in addition, that arid 
zone countries involved be asked to participate in this program. 
Although the original plan of the International Geophysical Year 
has been expanded, the vast arid and semi-arid areas of Africa, 
Asia, Australia, North America, and South America—30°N to 
30°S principally—are still poorly represented in the list of longi- 
tudinal and latitudinal sections fixed for intensive observations. 
The observations of solar radiation and of other meteorological 
