#desiccation

• Aral — The Aral Sea; a former endorheic lake of massive proportions located in Central Asia, between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Once the fourth-largest lake in the world, it dried up almost completely starting in the 1960s due to the massive diversion of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers for cotton crop irrigation during the Soviet era, becoming the largest man-made ecological disaster in contemporary history.
• Aridification — The action of aridifying and its result; the climatic and ecological process of gradual drying of a region, characterized by a drastic decline in water reserves, degradation of soil structure, and reduction of vegetative cover. It represents a phase preceding desertification, having major consequences on biodiversity, agriculture, and environmental structural stability.