The book addresses three distinctive aspects of desert development: regional planning, urban environment and building. It summarizes the results of 20 years of research carried out by the Center for Desert Architecture and Urban Planning at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel. In contrast to other books on desert development, the book considers physical development of desert regions not as an end in itself, but rather as an essential precondition for creating socially attractive and desirable environments for human settlement. Desert Regions consists of three parts, each of which considers different conceptual levels of desert development: I Regional Development and Population Change; II Cities of Cold and Hot Deserts; III Building and Design. In addition to the Israeli experience, the book includes research and design from other countries (Russia, Egypt, India, Mexico) which face acute problems of regional development in climatically extreme areas.