Mediterranean Sea

The mediterranean sea is a sea of the temperate zone located between Europe to the north and west, Africa to the south, and Asia to the east. It represents approximately 0.8 percent of the total marine waters of the earth but contains 7 percent of global marine flora and fauna.

The region surrounding the sea and the numerous islands also contain one of the richest natural and cultural heritages of the earth, now threatened by phenomena such as pollution by agricultural and industrial discharges as well as that derived from oil tankers (25 percent of world traffic); urbanization linked to mass tourism; loss of natural and agricultural land; and possibly also sea level rise linked to climate change. The Mediterranean also presents one of the main socioeconomic fractures of the globe, with income differences of 1 to 5 between the northern and richer shore versus the southern and poorer shore. Hence the legal and, above all, illegal tide of immigrants from the south to the north.

The physical environment of the Mediterranean reflects the great complexity of an extremely dynamic natural setting. With over 28,520 miles (46,000 kilometers) of coasts, the sea is surrounded by high mountains, hills, and coastal plains and fragmented into several smaller water bodies separated by large land masses (peninsulas such as Iberia, Italy, and Greece and large islands such as Corsica, [Page 1126]Sardinia, and Sicily). Climatically the most relevant characteristic is the presence of a distinctive summer drought, which historically has conditioned agricultural production, making irrigation necessary. Together with thermal conditions, however, it has also prompted the consolidation of mass tourism (228 million tourists in 2003 or more than 30 percent of the world total).

The combination of an active physiography (earthquakes, landslides, and volcanic eruptions) and climate (dominated by the hydrological extremes of floods and droughts)—plus a long history of human settlement—has produced one of the highest biodiversity rates of the planet. The Mediterranean is the home of 10 percent of the world's higher plants and ranks second only to tropical rain forests in the diversity of its many other plant and animal species.

In 2003 the 22 countries bordering the Mediterranean had an estimated population of 427 million (about 7 percent of the world total). Because of agricultural and tourist demand, water, which traditionally has been a limited resource in this region, has become critical, especially in the southern and eastern parts. Access to water and adequate wastewater systems represents perhaps the most important environmental challenge of the region. Most of the water is used for irrigation, and in many countries, available resources are unable to compensate for a growing demand. Thus it is estimated that about 108 million people in Mediterranean countries live with less than 264,172 gallons (1,000 cubic meters) per year available, and that about 45 million do with less than 132,086 gallons (500 cubic meters) per year (this figure is considered the “extreme scarcity” threshold). By 2025, the number of people with less than this threshold amount per year will rise to 63 million.

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