Environmental Challenges In The Mediterranean 2000 2050

This book addresses six key factors that will affect environmental policies in the Mediterranean region during the next fifty years: population growth, climate change, soil erosion and desertification, water scarcity, food production, and urbanization and pollution. The authors assess these as potential sources of violent conflict. The interdisciplinary approach makes this a relevant and useful reference for a broad range of professionals, specialists and researchers.

This book addresses six key factors that will affect environmental policies in the Mediterranean region during the next fifty years: population growth, climate change, soil erosion and desertification, water scarcity, food production, and urbanization and pollution. The authors assess these as potential sources of violent conflict. The interdisciplinary approach makes this a relevant and useful reference for a broad range of professionals, specialists and researchers.

The Mediterranean has been subject to changing human settlement and land use patterns for millennia, and has a history of human exploitation in an inherently unstable landscape. Environmental Issues in the Mediterranean reviews both physical and social aspects of this region, in relation to its environment. Ideal for students who are studying a range of environmental issues, but want to see them linked within one regional context. The book begins with an introduction to the Mediterranean region, its history, physical and human geography and its environmental problems. It then goes on to examine: * The Dynamic Environment - climate variables and fluctuations, vegetation, the hydrological cycle of the basin and its watershed, processes of erosion, fire and the Mediterranean Sea *The Human Impact on the Environment - prehistoric and historic land use, traditional agriculture, rural and urban settlement and use of mineral resources * The Mediterranean Environment Under Increasing Pressure - the present human landscape, changes in agriculture in the 20th century, the impact of depopulation, pollution, water resources, desertification and potential climatic change. It then concludes with a discussion of the region's on-going environmental issues of water resources, land degradation, agricultural intensification and tourism, and considers how these can be approached using management techniques and national and regional policies.

This compendium looks at Asian and European policies for dealing with climate change, and possible impacts on conflicts and security. It clarifies the impacts of climate change on natural resources, on the frequency and expansion of natural disasters and the repercussions for environmentally-induced migration.

This two-volume set provides an extensive review of the abundant past and recent literature on the atmospheric chemistry in the Mediterranean region. The books document the experience gained on the atmospheric composition over the Mediterranean basin and close areas after almost six decades of studies, starting from early studies of radioactive aerosol fallouts and intense desert dust events in the 1960s, aerosol samples collected during oceanographic cruises in the early 1980s and including discoveries from subsequent surface monitoring stations, intensive campaigns, satellite climatologies, laboratory studies, as well as chemistry-transport and climate models. Through ten thematic sections, the authors examine the sources and fates of atmospheric pollutants over the Mediterranean basin and what we know about their major impacts on air quality and health, on the radiative budget and climate, on marine chemistry and biogeochemistry. This overview not only considers the full cycle of both aerosol and reactive gases including emissions, transport, transformation, and sinks, but also addresses the main impacts of the regional atmospheric chemistry. The volumes are an initiative from the ending ChArMEx project that has federated many studies on those topics in the past decade, and update the scientific knowledge by integrating the ChArMEx and non-ChArMEx literature. The books are contributed by a large pool of well-known authors from the respective fields, mainly from France and Greece, but also from fourteen other countries. All chapters have been peer-reviewed by international scientific experts in the corresponding domains. Volume 1 provides background information on the Mediterranean atmosphere, and focuses on the synoptic and dynamic conditions affecting pollutant concentrations over the Mediterranean basin, aerosol concentrations and variability, and reactive gas concentrations and variability. The targeted audience is the academic community working on atmospheric chemistry and its impacts on climate, air quality and marine biogeochemistry, especially teams having a special interest in the Mediterranean region, which includes many countries and institutes worldwide.

'Here's a work arriving just at the right moment and contributingnew insights at precisely the time when public opinion remains sceptical of the not very promising future we are preparing for our children, when governments balk at explaining to their electorates the vital but unpopular decisions that have to be taken and when civil society, with few ways and means, is finally becoming involved. This remarkable work will help all actors to understand the inter-linkages between economic activities and the environment in the Mediterranean Basin and take concerted, effective action to build a positive, sustainable future' Mohamed Ennabli, former Minister of the Environment and Land Use Panning, Tunisia 'The Blue Plan has carried out a remarkable assessment of the serious environmental probems and insufficiently targeted cooperation in the Mediterranean, and also of new financing systems to be implemented, which would increase the capacities of local authorities and economic and social partners' Georges Corm, former Minister of Finance, Lebanon The Mediterranean Basin and its surrounding countries is a microcosm of the environmental and sustainability challenges facing people across the world. Depending on the development path it takes in the future, the region can either become a positive model for the regional regulation of globalization, or, more onerously, it might reinforce global instability. This unique volume is the definitive, authoritative assessment of the environment and development of the Mediterranean Basin and its 22 countries and territories, spanning five decades from 30 years in the past to 20 years into the future. Produced by the Blue Plan within the framework of UNEP/Mediterranean Action Plan and backed by the EU and national governments, it brings together the work of more than 100 researchers from dozens of national, regional and local governments and research groups into the only comprehensive insight into sustainable development issues in the region. Core coverage includes water, energy, transport, cities, rural and coastal areas, as well as related issues such as climate change, population growth, geopolitical changes, unemployment and poverty, pollution, economic and environmental policies, regional cooperation and the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership. Information is clearly presented through hundreds of full-colour maps, graphs, tables and a wealth of case studies. This is a must-have reference for all levels of government, NGOs and libraries, as well as practitioners, academics and businesses involved in economics, natural resource management, land and maritime transport, water, energy, infrastructure, urban and rural development, agriculture, fishing and aquaculture, tourism and coastal management. Countries and territories covered: Spain, France, Italy, Monaco, Malta, Cyprus, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro, Albania, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Palestinian Territories, Israel, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. Preface by Lucien Chabason, Chairman of the Blue Plan.

National and global security can be assessed in many ways but one underlying factor for all humanity is access to reliable sources of water for drinking, sanitation, food production and manufacturing industry. In many parts of the world, population growth and an escalating demand for water already threaten the sustainable management of available water supplies. Global warming, climate change and rising sea level are expected to intensify the resource sustainability issue in many water-stressed regions of the world by reducing the annual supply of renewable fresh water and promoting the intrusion of saline water into aquifers along sea coasts, where 50% of the global population reside. Pro-active resource management decisions are required, but such efforts would be futile unless reliable predictions can be made about the impact of the changing global conditions on the water cycle and the quality and availability of critical water reserves. Addressing this wide spectrum of issues, a team of expert authors discusses here the impacts of climate change on the global water resources, the long-term resource management goals at global and local scales, the data requirements and the scientific and technical advances necessary to mitigate the associated impacts.

The book provides a cross sectoral assessment of the most relevant environmental challenges in the Mediterranean region, including land and water degradation, water and food security, and solution opportunities for these. It also discusses main change drivers, such as changes in climate, land use, population, demographics and technology. Additionally, the book explores improved management, participatory planning, and nature-based strategies and measures for meeting the key environmental challenges, e.g. restoring degraded areas and improving land management in different land uses (e.g. forest, coastal and urban areas). Finally, the book addresses needs and opportunities to improve governance and partnerships for assuring sustainable development in the Mediterranean region.