I had rather thought it would fit well anywhere you don't have to use chinampas to grow.
I would be very careful of specific geology and soil types, as I am aware that cutting a trench of any depth in some cases might have immediate destabilizing consequences. Even just increasing water retention capacity in some soils and situations runs the risk of consequences as severe as landslides or mudslides. Hydrology is a tricky, fickle thing.
I developed the idea digging one manually for a hugelbeet. I excavated my trench, piled up a couple of dismembered invasive
trees, manures, and my compost heaps, and piled the subsoil up, backfilled with
wood chips, and put the topsoil atop the pile, planted as a veggie patch.
What impressed me about this whole thing that I hadn't expected was the wood chip path. It was three feet deep, and it drank all the rain the spring and summer could throw, where before there was ankle-deep mud.
In late july through September, that half of my garden was the greenest patch of
land not directly under a leaky tap or regular sprinkler. I never had to water.
I think that, rather than being arid climate specialised, that this technique has benefits in a range of circumstances.
-CK
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
-Robert A. Heinlein