is provided by the rivers and 21.3% by precipitation; the remainder comes from the excess of inward currents over outward currents at Gibraltar (70.6%) and the Bosphorus (3.2%). At this rate, it has been calculated that 7,500 years would be required to change the water in the Mediterranean" (Walker, 1960).
"The Mediterranean Sea acts as a gigantic temperature regulator due to the high heat capacity of its water. The farther one goes from the sea, the lower the regulatory effect is. As a result of this, the differences between day and night temperatures, as well as seasonal temperatures, are high. The influence of the Red and Dead Seas and the Persian Gulf, which are enclosed in narrow depressions, is limited to their very close vicinities... The harshness of the high and low temperatures is compensated by the dryness of the weather... This causes high evaporation rates from the surface of water bodies and high transpiration rates from vegetation... Taking into account the scarce and random nature of the precipitation, these phenomena are of crucial importance to the biotic world, as well as to the development of water resources and agriculture" (Issar, 1990).
The Middle East can only be understood through an examination of its river systems, of which there are six. What characterizes the region through which they flow are:
b. an abundance of unequally distributed natural resources, primarily hydrocarbon fuels
d. a very long history of management of water resources
e. an equally long history of conflict, more often over water than over hydrocarbon fuels" (Naff & Matson, 1984).
Strange as it may seem to Americans and Europeans, then, is the fact that water is much more important to Middle Eastern peoples than oil. If regional conflicts are fundamentally over water, water problems ought to be addressed long before hydrocarbon fuel ones.
The six river systems with which this survey ...