ABSTRACT

It has been seen that significant change has taken place in the landscape of the Argolid Valley over the past forty years, primarily in response to the increased availability of irrigation water. It would be very wrong, however, to think of the Argolid as an homogeneous unit and it is central to this study that an understanding of the degradation process, and any appropriate responses to it, must take into account the social and physical variation within the area. It will be the purpose of this and the following chapters to provide a record of the changes in agricultural production for the area as a whole and the variation within it and the different socio-economic structures and technologies that support, and are determined by, that production.