Post-industrial sites on the fringes and within urban environments in the Negev Desert pose significant environmental and landscape challenges. These sites, such as factories, quarries, landfills, and transportation hubs, were abandoned due to global economic shifts and growing environmental awareness. In parallel, natural sites of high ecological value were polluted by sewage, waste and contaminated runoff. The result is a patchwork of degraded areas that disrupt ecological and urban systems.
In recent decades, rising environmental discourse has driven efforts to rehabilitate these landscapes and reintegrate them into the urban fabric. This study mapped and analysed a range of contaminated sites in the Negev Desert, and developed a database based on proximity to settlements, statutory status, size, type of contamination addressed and rehabilitation approach. Case studies included the Beer-Sheva stream, Sofrim Park in Beer Sheva, Ramon Crater quarries and others, where restoration transformed degraded land into parks, promenades and public spaces.
The research employed an interdisciplinary methodology, combining archival work, visual landscape analysis, GIS-based mapping and spatial analysis and interviews with landscape architects and stakeholders. This approach enabled historical contextualization and comparative spatial analysis of rehabilitation processes.
By examining Israeli projects alongside international examples, the study identified guidelines and principles for restoring degraded desert landscapes, which balance ecological, cultural, and urban needs. The findings contribute to the discourse and planning of sustainable landscape in arid regions, highlighting how landscape planning and design can address climatic, ecological and social challenges in rapidly evolving environments.
