agriculture in the middle east - artificial watering systems?
look at these green dots in the middle of the desert (this is a satellite image of the landscape in egypt btw).
how come? do they use some kind of sprinkler system or sth? does anybody have the name of this type of setup, or any close-up photographies?
9 replies
Center-pivot irrigation?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center-pivot_irrigation
looks like we posted at the same second, with the same link! congratulations :-)
can confirm. same second. thanks!
Just to add context this isn’t a Middle East specific thing, you might see these basically anywhere crops are irrigated. If you check the US Southwest you’ll see similar circles of farmland.
I literally picked a random spot in Kansas and zoomed in:
Same in Washington.
Here's a video about it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkL_BXs-n9E
Its a lot more cost effective to have one long boom arm sweep out a radius with a wheel at the end. Basically some of the most heavily optimized for and well supplied irrigation systems on the planet.