The Oasis Effect

Harvard GSD

In some of the world’s driest regions, a small amount of water can have effects that are completely out of proportion to its volume. Meteorologists call this the “oasis effect”: a patch of land, surrounded by desert, that cools and moistens the air around it and maintains a microclimate that would not otherwise be possible. This seminar broadens the term to encompass a wider family of phenomena: configurations of topography, water, soil, vegetation, and built form that collect scarce water…