water Article Benefits of Water-Harvesting Systems (Jessour) on Soil Water Retention in Southeast Tunisia Martin Calianno 1, Jean-Michel Fallot 1, Tarek Ben Fraj 2,3,Hédi Ben Ouezdou 2, Emmanuel Reynard 1,*, Marianne Milano 1 , Mohamed Abbassi 2, Aziza Ghram Messedi 2 and Thierry Adatte 4 1 Institute of Geography and Sustainability, University of Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland;
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[email protected]; Tel.: +41-79-331-7244 Received: 14 December 2019; Accepted: 13 January 2020; Published: 19 January 2020 Abstract: In this paper, we quantify the water balance of Jessour at the scale of agricultural plots. Jessour (plural of Jesr) are ancestral hydro-agricultural systems in the Dahar plateau (southeastern Tunisia). They consist of small dams built across wadis and gullies, which retain rainwater and sediments, hence enabling cropping. Despite arid climate conditions, Jessour allow the culture of the olive tree beyond its ecological limits. Weather monitoring stations were set up and soil moisture sensors installed down to a depth of 1.25 m in the soil in two neighboring gullies in the village of Zammour: one with a Jesr and one without.