While rangelands still account for a substantial part of the
northern Negev, their extent today is not well defined. Land-use
maps provided by the Israeli government are more detailed for
agricultural and urban land-use classes, than for others. Currently,
there are only two national land-use maps available from the state
of Israel: one from the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) and
another from the Survey of Israel. Both maps lack a definition of
rangelands. In addition, the Ministry of Agriculture does not
possess any rangeland maps of the northern Negev, where land
devoted for pasture is not defined by fences (Shmuel Friedman,
Director of Open Spaces, Ministry of Agriculture, personal
communication). In light of continuous land-use changes and lack
of regard to rangelands in existing land-use maps, there is a need
for creating a current land-use information database, to be utilized
by planners, scientists, and decision makers.