Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
a period of abandonment, mainly for cultural activities (see Chapter 7). Currently
tourism as an external driver is non-uniform across the Mediterranean mountains.
Again, its impact is concentrated mainly in the northern Mediterranean countries,
which promote a range of tourism activities including mass tourism (e.g. ski resorts)
but also ecotourism (e.g. trekking, agri-tourism, cultural tourism).
10.3 Adaptation and protection
10.3.1 Response to natural changes
Agenda 21 Chapter 13 of the Rio protocol ranks mountains among the most en-
dangered landscapes worldwide due to their steep terrain and mountain climate in
combination with intense land use pressure. This description recognizes on the one
hand the potential for change as an inherent property of the mountain systems while
on the other hand points out that human-induced disturbances will increase the im-
pacts and decrease resilience. With the fast pace of natural and human-induced
changes worldwide, adaptation has become a major topic of applied research in an
attempt to restore the resilience of ecosystems but also prepare human communities
for change.
Volcanic activity is one of the principal agents of natural disturbance. While this
chapter was being written, Sicily's Mount Etna went through a series of eruptions
from July to October 2011, causing lava sprays into the air but no damage or casu-
alties. Since adaptation to volcanic activity is difficult, monitoring and early warn-
ing systems are probably the best option. Many of the authors in this volume have
pointed out the need for increasing monitoring and development of early warn-
ing systems. For example De Jong
et al.
(in Chapter 5) advocate the analysis of
snowmelt discharge regimes and their integration into seasonal forecasting as well
as the development of adaptation strategies for mountain water resources. In some
cases monitoring systems are in place, such as the GLORIA network (Global Ob-
servation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments; www.gloria.ac.at), an inter-
national initiative for assessing climate change impacts on mountain environments.
Essentially it is the largest network worldwide for field data collection and monitor-
ing of mountain climate and vegetation, which in the Mediterranean area includes
the Sierra Nevada, Apennines, Lefka Ori (Greece) and the Corsican Alps.
Effort should be also directed towards modelling techniques, increasingly used
to gain insight into the possible future changes in environments including moun-
tains (see Chapter 9). Scale (both spatial and temporal), datasets and the technique
employed are typical issues affecting the reliability of any modelling exercise. In
addition, and since climate change will not act alone but in synergy with land use
change, there is a need to decouple the effects of these factors and improve on the
uncertainty of current predictions.
Modern nature conservation favours the adoption of a dynamic approach as a ma-
jor response to climate change. Landscape approaches based on the use of corridors,
