INTEGRATION OF THE GEOMORPHOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT AND CULTURAL HERITAGE FOR TOURISM PROMOTION BY GIS
There are several reasons for severe land and terrace degradation in the Maltese Islands. The main reason is the land abandonment, which took place from the 1960ies. Cultivated fields have a constant protection against soil erosion by the crops and the farmers care for both the field itself and the field terraces as well as the rubble walls, which are part of the cultural heritage in the Maltese Islands. Once a rubble wall is broken down intensive soil erosion starts because then the tracks for the erosion processes are pre-determined. Normally the natural vegetation is able to regain abandoned land in a short period, but the dry, hot, and windy climate in the Maltese Islands creates unfavourable conditions. At the end of the year rainstorms occur and cover the mainly unprotected land with flash floods. All this occurs while the global change produces more heavy rainfall than in the decades before.
Malta land-use change land degradation field terraces erosion tourism GIS
Bernd Cyfflca
Applied Physical Geography University of Eichstaett-Ingolstadt Ostenstrasse 18, D-85072 Eichstaett, Germany
国际会议
乌鲁木齐
英文
544-555
2008-06-29（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）