Around 1950, the development of aerial surveys showed the presence, in the arid and semiarid zones of Africa, of particular vegetation patterns, corresponding to plant communities established in parallel stripes, alternating with unvegetated zones. Such landscapes consist of a mosaic of bare areas and vegetated stripes, the major axes of which are always perpendicular to the slope. These striped vegetation patterns have subsequently been reported in many parts of the arid and semiarid regions of the world.
