Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
14
Restoration of Mediterranean
woodlands
Ramón Vallejo, James Aronson , Juli G. Pausas and Jordi Cortina
14.1 Introduction
Human density is very high in the Mediterranean
region, particularly in the summertime. Known for its
rich history, its dazzling panoply of archaeological and
historical monuments and emblematic landscapes of
western civilization (Grove & Rackham 2000, Allen
2001), the region has also long enjoyed the dubious
distinction of being the premier tourist destination
in the world. But two sharp geographical gradients
occur. First, water and land are running short in coastal
areas where tourists, working families and retired
people seeking the sun all tend to congregate.
The Mediterranean Basin contains about 2.3 million km
2
of land, including part or all of 20 mountain ranges
within 150 km of the sea, 40,000 km of coastline, 5000
islands and islets, a dozen or so peninsulas, and a
highly complex geology and human land-use history
(Suc 1984). The so-called Sea among the Lands was
the principal matrix of exchange for successive civil-
izations over most of the last 10 millennia of history
(Fig. 14.1).
NE
NW
SW
SE
Fig. 14.1
Distribution of the Mediterranean vegetation (in grey) in the Mediterranean Basin. SW, south-west;
SE, south-east; NW, north-west; NE, north-east. Modified from Blondel and Aronson (1999).
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