The project aims to contribute to the formulation of policies concerning land degradation, the effects of which are compatible with, and can safely and efficiently be applied to, a wide range of national, regional and local circumstances by investigating how the rapidly changing social and socio-natural dynamics of Souther Europe (urbanisation, agro-industry, infrastructure) relate to the problems of degradation and desertification in that area.

The present project is the sequel to the investigation (ARCHAEOMEDES I) of the many
temporal scales (from 106 to 10-1 years) involved, and will primarily be concerned with the spatial
aspects of the dynamics. It focuses on (1) the definition of the various levels of structuration
which drive the dynamics involved, (2) the investigation of the ways in which the dynamics at
these various levels articulate, (3) the creation of decision-support models of these dynamics
which facilitate the investigation of alternative scenarios for the future, and (4) the development
of ways in which to map these dynamics in geographical time-space.
Four scales will be studied, each representing the interaction between two levels of structuration
: (1) the European and national scale (focus on overall population dynamics); (2) the regionalsubregional scale (focus on spatial structure of human settlement vs. that of the natural
environment, to be investigated in the Lower Rhtne Valley, the Languedoc-Roussillon and the
Midi-Pyrinees (France); (3) the subregional-local scale (focus on the immediate ways in which
a population controls its interaction with the environment, which are constrained by perception,
the nature and internal dynamics of the communities involved, the spatial structure of the
resources and the settlement pattern, etc., to be investigated in the Benidorm and Emporda areas
(Spain), the Argolid (Greece) and the Lozhre (France); (4) the local-individual determining the
resilience of certain localities and the demise of others, etc., to be investigated in the Causse
Mijan (France), the Mondijo Basin (Portugal) and NW Epirus (Greece). We will use a set of
modelling techniques to map the spatiotemporal dynamics of structuration in these areas at the
appropriate levels.
Finally we will synthesise the results obtained in a context derived from the issues in policymaking and implementation which are presently focusing the minds of administrators at many
levels. Our recommendations will be evaluated for their contribution to long-term sustainability
against some of the criteria proposed by the Club of Lisbon.