Overview
Shortly after the establishment of the Faculty of Agriculture in 1976. The “Department of Soil and Irrigation” came into existence. The mandate of that Department was to recruit the local and Arab markets with graduates equipped with necessary skills to serve and improve the cause of agricultural production. Early graduates from that Department proved to be the center pivot of agricultural development in many Arab countries. In 1995, the former academic emphasis was modified in such a way to incorporate the growing environmental interest in the Departmental research and educational curricula. Few years after that, the name of Department was then changed into “The Department of Agricultural Resources and Environment”. This interest has further been modified to view the soil as a component of the larger Land Resources and its function to be extended from a medium for plant growth into a wider environmental perspective. Soil has been treated as “Biochemical Reactor” and “Irrigation” has been narrowed down into an area of the larger “Water” perspective. At this time the Department is known as “Department of Land, Water and Environment”. Fifteen faculty members and three undergraduate and graduate degrees are embraced in that Department. New research and course focuses were introduced like remote sensing, geographic information systems, soil and environment and environmental impact assessments. Moreover, plans are underway to welcome graduates from different science and engineering program in the departmental graduate programs. This switch in teaching policy has the intention of enabling the interdisciplinary approach in education and research.