Hey Warlin
Sounds interesting. The climate isn't as dry as we initially thought it was. Azelor very kindly did a bit of research about cities in the real world that exist at similar latitudes (about 12 degrees south of the equator) and came up with a list of references, which I copied into the FAQ thread. You can get to that by clicking the link in my signature (I carry it around with me because I'm forever having to set up a new link to it in 'this' or 'that' comment otherwise).
Your immediate neighbours are Ranger and Zhar2, so it might be worth having a look at their threads, just in case you can see opportunities for cross boundary cooperation. Others are in the process of building dams and whatnot between them, for example.
Looking forward to seeing your first WIP