Investigate the logic that rules the process of historical landscapes formation in relation to natural resources within a diachronic framework. Introduce the historical perspective (4th dimension), which we consider to be a powerful interpretation key, in landscape studies:
- Conduct a specific historical and archaeological study in the four Mediterranean mountain landscapes of: Sierra Nevada (Granada-Almería, Spain), Monti di Trapani (Trapani, Italy), Colli Euganei (Padova, Italy), Vjosa Valley (Albania).
- Quantitatively assess the long-term historical uses of water and soils in the study areas. Analysis of agrosystems (crops and livestock), via the collection and examination (archaeological fieldwork and ethnographic surveys) of the historical traces that remained fossilised in the landscape.
- Comparative study of the four sample-areas in order to unveil their commonalities and differences.
- Analysis of the productivity and resource use efficiency in the four historic sample-areas, through agronomic and hydrological resource-management models, taking into account the global climate change, and the EU policies and strategies (European Landscape Convention, European water policy, Common Agricultural Policy, Joint Programming Initiative (JPI) on Cultural Heritage and Global Change).