Natural Environment and Culture in the Mediterranean Region
About this ebook
At present approximately 300 million people live here and water shortages and desertification will be the serious problems in the near future. Tourism is placing a significant pressure on the coastal ecosystems. The construction of infrastructure and the direct impacts of people using and trampling sensitive dune ecosystems remains a key threat to coastal areas. In view of the valuable natural heritage there is a great need for weighing our ecological impact in order to achieve a balance between biodiversity conservation and human development and above all, how to maintain traditional rural livelihoods in a way that benefits biodiversity.
The changes in the atmosphere, geomorphological processes, and most natural cycles involving a biomass of any substantial size denote the arrival of a new geological period the "Anthropocene". We the humans are actively changing the overall conditions of our existence by terraforming the earth, changing the overall patterns of basic life systems in the process of remaking our specific contexts, not least to supposedly secure our modes of life. This book is thus synthesizing knowledge from many disciplines to throw some light on the unpredictability of forthcoming changes.
About the author
Georges G. Cravins is Professor of Geography at University of Wisconsin –La Crosse, USA.
He obtained his Ph.D., Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1988. He has authored several Research Reports, Articles in refereed journals, and Monographs on Human Geography. He has been involved in numerous research activities associated with Political and human geography. His research interests include political and economic geography, as well as the processes of globalization and its impacts on people and the environment.
Prof. Dr. Münir Öztürk-born in Kashmir-India (1943) has a proven track record of over 200 research publications in highly reputed professional journals, in the fields of ecology and environmental sciences, in addition to 20 chapters in Int. Books. Has published 21 books (2 by Birkhauser Verlag and 1 by Springer), and received more than 15 honours or awards. Two plant species named after him are; Sideritis öztürkii and Verbascum öztürkii.
Prof. Dr. h. c. Ibrahim Atalay was born in Turkey in 1947. He received his bachelor and master degrees in Geography from the University of Istanbul. He obtained his Ph.D. in Geography from Istanbul University; He has authored more than 30 scientific books and over 100 paper in scientific journals and conference proceedings. He was awarded “Professoris Honoris Causa” title by the University of Bucharest. He was selected in 500 Greatest Geniuses of the 21 th Century due to dedicated and influential success in the field of Geography and Ecology by the American Biographical Institute.
