Mediterranean coastal lagoons in an ecosystem and aquatic resources management context

Aquatic ecosystems, water resources and their management are some of the main problems facing humanity. These problems vary from water scarcity and deteriorating quality for human consumption and use, to floods in areas with torrential rainfall, rising sea levels in coastal zones, the overexploitation of living resources and the loss of ecological quality and biodiversity. Proper water management needs to follow a hierarchical perspective, ranging from the whole planet to individual water bodies. Spatio-temporal scales change at each level, as do driving forces, impacts, and the processes and responses involved. Recently, the European Union adopted the Water Framework Directive (WFD) to establish the basic principles of sustainable water policy in member states, one of the main concerns being the need to consider the vulnerability of coastal aquatic ecosystems and to establish their ecological status. However, from a Mediterranean point of view, the actions of European countries (under the WFD regulations) and non-EU countries need to be coordinated. There are more than 100 coastal lagoons in the Mediterranean. They are habitats with an important ecological role, but also provide essentials goods and services for humans. In the present work, we look at the problems involved in understanding their definition and management. At water body management level, we emphasise that scientific cooperation is necessary to deal with the conceptual and ecological difficulties derived from inter and intra-lagoon variability in hydrology and biological assemblages, inherent factors in the functioning of these complex ecosystems. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.