ABSTRACT
The most serious problems facing marine and coastal resources in regions around the globe are environmental ones (Huber et al. 2003). In European Mediterranean regions the main factors affecting coastal and marine areas are urban development, tourism, fisheries and aquaculture, agriculture, population change, industry, energy, and transport growth (EEA 1999). Southern European Union coastal regions host large metropolitan areas such as Athens, Barcelona, or Lisbon. In the mid-1980s almost 90 percent of urbanised land in the Mediterranean was found in the coastal zones of Spain, France, Greece, Italy, and the former Yugoslavia (EEA 1999). Socioeconomic groups often compete for the use and control of coastal resources, such as coastal wetlands or forests, which are usually threatened by a wide variety of land uses.
