Introduction
The Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem (ARIJ) launched a two year project in July 1994 to produce a series of environmental profiles for each district in the West Bank. The aim of this project was to assess the status of the environment in Palestine and to reflect the special characteristics of the environmental problems and the measures required to safeguard and preserve our environment for the future generations. This project is supported and financed by the Federal Government of Austria, Department for Development Cooperation, through the Society for Austro - Arab Relations (SAAR). This volume is the fifth in this series. It describes the status of the environment in Nablus district.
The Nablus District Environmental Profile addresses the natural resources and describes the scope and extent of the environmental problems facing the district. Moreover, it provides data which are helpful for planning and initiating the needed projects to rehabilitate environmentally stressed areas and prevent future deterioration.
Information concerning land use, topography, climate, geology, soil, water resources, agriculture, wastewater and solid waste collection and disposal, air and noise pollution is presented in this profile. In addition, it covers the socio-economic situation and the existing historical and archeological sites existing in the district and their current status and state of repair.
As the extension of the flora and fauna are unrestricted to the boundaries of the district, they will be addressed collectively with those of the other districts in the Comprehensive Environmental Profile for the whole West Bank, at the end of the year 1996.
Most of the information and data used in this report were collected by the project team and based on primary field research, questionnaire, investigations, personal interviews and meetings with officials from municipalities, village councils, the United Nations for Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA), the agricultural institutions, weather station and hospitals. Maps and information related to land areas are all prepared by the Geographic Information System unit team ARIJ.