DESERT BAJADA
As an ecological condition within the Chihuahuan Desert, the bajadas are the lowlands and ravines carved by the force of occasional stormwater with concentrations of soil and an array of gravels being deposited, and where scoured boulders and stone outcroppings may become exposed. A community of cactus, short grasses, wildflowers + small trees specializing in these sedimentary deposits along desert arroyos can be reimagined within the urban ecosystem featuring similar environmental conditions.
ECOLOGY NOTEBOOK: DESERT BAJADA
sky islands
Incredible micro-climates for endemic plants are created in the Chihuahuan Desert of Texas, where mountains create virtual islands surrounded by desert basins that are like seas.
a.k.a.
trans-pecos, west texas, chihuahuan desert
ancient corridors
Native Americans used the great desert rivers, the pecos + rio grande, as seasonal migration corridors, connecting mesoamerica to the eastern ancestral puebloan communities + beyond.
DESIGN SUPPORT
Common within the urban context are landscape zones that exhibit high levels of exposure to the sun, with little or no shade throughout the day. When bundled with additional physiographic characteristics, such as the presence of significant stone, masonry or paving, as well as a slope that tends toward the south or west, a landscape zone can be described with having desert bajada conditions. Similar conditions to those commonly found in the Trans-Pecos region of Texas, which is the eastern part of the Chihuahuan Desert that stretches into Mexico and New Mexico.
REGIONAL ASSOCIATION
