[beerandt]

Should also mention that water requirements are generally much higher than needed to sustain an existing equivalent forest, as most desert soils have a high salt content near the surface, due to evapotranspiration drawing salts up and concentrating them, and lack of precipitation to ever flush/dilute them.

Not sure if any of these proposals plan to attempt to actively reduce soil (or aquifer) salt content, but for basins without sufficient excess water for an outflow, salt build up is a big problem. Managing the salinity requires more fresh water than what is needed to sustain the plane life.