Contenu du sommaire

The Lebanese subcoastal area is characterized by the presence of a great number of erosion platforms some of which are to be found at a height of 300 meters and occasionally 500 metres above sea-level. These rasas cannot here be assigned to continental erosion whose traces are paradoxically few. Hence Lebanon lends itself remarkably to a study of the various types of littoral shaping and it is possible to throw light on the respective parts played by the structure, the glacio-eustatic fluctuations of the sea-level, the climatic changes, and, finally, an important uplift in the Quaternary.

The first demographic sample survey of Ethiopie was made from 1964 to 1967. The general results are consistent with what one may expect to find slightly developed countries: scanty urbanization (10,7 %), extreme youth of the population (45 % are under fifteen), high birth-rate (50,1 %o) and death-rate (25,3 %o), rapid increase in and preponderance of agricultural activities. The population of Ethiopie is nevertheless original for two main reasons : one notices on one hand that the repartition of the population varies according to the different altitude zones, with thickly populated in the mountains, and empty low countries, except for the Rift whose population is fastly increasing. On the other hand, the demographic attitudes peculiar to Christians and Moslems may account for a sharp contrast between the South and the North.

The construction of the Tabqa dam was started in 1968 and quickly worked out with the filling up of the Assad-lake in 1973. Now, the Euphrates water will be used for irrigation in the east syrian desert, on a 640 000 ha. large area. The development will be achieved at the end of century and could be enlarged to 1 M° hectares with the realisation of the Khabbour project. Besides, the power station will allow the doublement of the national electric production.

The Emirates of Bahrein and Qatar are not in the same situation : for the first, the oil production is stabilized to about 3,5 M° t ; for the second, the production is increasing rapidly to 30 M° t. But in both states an active investment' s policy is carried on. The nature and the diversity of these implants (steel, aluminium, chemistry, ship repairing) change the industrial geography of the Middle-East and give the Emirates an economical and political weight without proportion with their area and population.