Mediterranean desertification and land use: MEDALUS project
A summary is now available of the first phase of the Mediterranean Desertification and Land Use (MEDALUS) project, funded under the European Programme on Climatology and Natural Hazards (EPOCH, 1989-1992). MEDALUS brought together 17 institutions from eight Member States to establish a sound working knowledge of ecological and soil systems and their interactions in the Mediterranean regions of Europe. The project aimed to: - Investigate the physical, biological and socio-economic processes leading to and continuing to cause desertification in the Mediterranean regions of Europe; - Create models of these processes with a view to projecting the impact of climatic changes and changes in socio-economic activities, especially EU policy, on the landscape system of the Mediterranean; - Identify possible mechanisms for mitigating these effects. The 25-page colour publication introduces the project, explains its objectives, and includes sections on climatology, the physical processes of desertification, the modelling of physical and biological responses, remote sensing, and socio-economic studies. Conclusions and recommendations are also presented. Contact details for each of the partners involved are given and a bibliography of papers published in the context of MEDALUS is annexed. The second phase of the project, MEDALUS II, commenced in January 1993 and will continue until December 1994. This phase encompasses the development of mitigation techniques, policy and policy instruments, the demonstration of the application models, as well as further research into the processes of desertification.