Existing areas and past changes of wetland extent in the Mediterranean region: an overview

The authors quantified the amount of existing wetlands in the Mediterranean region as well as their losses in the past century. An estimated 18.5±3.5 million ha of wetlands existed in c. 2000, one quarter of them consisting of artificial wetlands, including primarily reservoirs and ricefields.
Past losses were estimated to represent c.50% over the 20th century. Land-cover maps derived from the CORINE Land-Cover system were also used to test whether they could monitor total surface areas, surfaces by wetland types, or wetland losses, at the required scale.

Christian PERENNOU, Coralie BELTRAME, Anis GUELMAMI, Pere TOMAS VIVES, Pierre CAESSTEKER

Keywords: Mediterranean wetlands, Wetland surface, Wetland loss, Habitat trends, CORINE Land-Cover, Artificial wetlands.

ecologia mediterranea – Vol. 38 (2) – 2012 – pp. 53-66

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