This volume is largely, though not entirely, derived from the authors' participation in a series of EU-funded projects in the 1990s under the collective name MEDALUS (Mediterranean Deserti®cation and Land Use).
In the acknowledgements and the introductory chapter it quickly becomes clear that the authors' view of landscape degradation in the Mediterranean is less pessimistic than many of their colleagues on the project, and indeed than the general consensus that has interpreted much of the Mediterranean as a ruined landscape.' Chapter 1 traces the sense of a once green but now degraded landscape through cultural and scienti®c thought. The art of Poussin and the writing of Dante are invoked to stress the long-held sense of a once better' environment reduced by human exploitation. The authors review the development of notions of deserti®cation and note that the term `degradation' has become too burdened with value judgements. It is clear that the authors prefer a more circumspect approach, which seeks to examine environmental change in the Mediterranean by making careful use of documentary evidence, of®cial statistics, and, most importantly, ®eld observation. One quickly has the sense that this volume seeks to do for Mediterranean studies what Ives and Messerli's 1989 book, The Himalayan Dilemma, did for environmental science in that part of the world.
The succeeding ®ve chapters review the contemporary environment and the recent history of human intervention in the Mediterranean landscape. This starts with a description of contemporary climate that reviews the large-scale pressure systems, which control the climate, before considering the individual subregions from Iberia eastwards. The focus of this discussion is on the extreme rainfalls associated with ¯ooding and maintaining the human±environment linkage. Useful documentary information, such as a table illustrating notable deluges in the Mediterranean, and statistical summaries are provided. The chapter dealing with geology and geomorphology is basically a geological chronology of the region which neglects the geomorphological processes which are characteristic of seasonally dry landscapes, for example the notable dynamics of ephemeral streams. Chapter four describes the major vegetation species of the region. This section, as with most of the book, is generously illustrated with colour photographs, which are a great help to those unfamiliar with the species and their environments. The authors cover the interactions between plant ecology and human occupation of the landscape, for example graz-