Abstract
The Moisture Absorbent Textile (MAT) has been developed to control moistureloss from desert, i. e. evaporation. The evaporation quantity from a sand columnwith MAT, horizontally inserted at a upper part of capillary zone, is 39 % smallerthan that from a sand column without MAT. The decrease in the evaporation rateis attributed to the decrease in the vapor gradient over the dry zone. Its mechanism.is as follows. Due to the soil moisture, the swollen MAT makes the upward moistureflux across MAT low and the dry zone becomes thick. As a result, the watervapor density gradient over the dry zone, namely the driving force for the upwardmovement of water vapor decreases.
