| Since 1989 the European Community has established and funded a number of international programmes of research to address the issues of desertification, or land degradation, and the increasing demand on water resources across southern Europe. MEDALUS has been one of the projects in this programme, (DGXII, Environment Programme) and has sought to improve understanding of a wide range of physical, environmental problems, and to suggest and develop options for their amelioration. Since its start in 1991, there have been three phases to the project the third of which ended in June 1999. The emphasis of the research has changed in each phase and the partners also changed to reflect this. |
