Water caption systems in Mediterranean terraced landscapes facing climate change

There is a fundamental relation between Mediterranean landscape and the human capability to manage water. Most of the Mediterranean cultivations (olive-trees, vineyards) are dry crops, but an increasingly longer and more frequent arid hot period can create critical conditions. Traditional Mediterranean landscapes still keep signs of strategic system of water capture, conservation and drainage. Terraced systems assure water to rural villages and to cultivations, for irrigation. The maintenance of people is the only possible strategy to protect these places. Resident communities have changed their everyday life style, changing their way to exploit landscape resources. Sometimes they have abandoned the terraced areas, and the economic activities to sustain their families. Today most of their incomes derive from tourism. Nevermore the experience in the landscape can be the main theme to offer, to more and more attentive visitors, who like to become affectively involved in the particular character of these places.