I saw the Arizona desert from an airplane a few times. It is full of garbage and doesn't have any water.
I grew up beside the Pacific Ocean. The Rocky Mountains nearby are full of fresh water rivers.
When I moved to Ontario then I see fresh water lakes are all over the place. I don't know how much US pollution drops in, matbe it is blown away to the UK or somewhere else.
What's to read?, just look round for water board vans - I've seen them used many times - including by a friend who used to work for the water board.
Digging the road up costs a LOT! of money, so it's not a good idea to dig in the wrong place - water boards use dowsing to follow the course of water pipes when they don't know where they go.
There is plenty on the net relating to automated searching for land mines over large areas of bare terain - and yes, manual retrieval is not an option if a rover goes astray! The problem they have is detecting the mines, not controlling the rovers.
There's definately money in it. Maybe you should get together!