The Earth's Drylands

Drylands cover a substantial part of the Earth's land surface. Their semi-arid to sub-humid climates are variable but sufficient to sustain vegetation and human settlement. The equal area projection map above shows, in yellow, the extent of the world's drylands. The map's green area indicates hyper-arid and all other non-dryland regions.
(based on UNEP Dryland Degradation map, 1993)