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Fig. 8. Landscape picture showing the start of the growing season (13th April 2011) in the northernmost *Quercus pyrenaica* oak wood of Sierra Nevada National Park (Spain), the oak wood of the Alhama River at Dehesa del Camarate. The picture shows how the green sprouts of the oak trees are starting to come out while the leaves of the undergrowth shrubs

To spread the use of our monitoring approach and to make possible for managers the exploitation of such information, we have developed a software tool named "Monparq Monitoring System for Parks" that allows a non-advance user to assess the differences between locations, to explore the different environmental controls across the northern and southern slopes, and to evaluate the inter-annual trends in ecosystem functioning. This tool provides managers with valuable information to assess management effectiveness in an adaptive management strategy. It will help managers answering questions like, what ecosystems are undergoing major changes?, or how do management actions affect

Thanks to L. Sevilla, who helped processing the datasets, to F.J. Bonet and B. Benito from the Sierra Nevada Global Change Observatory for providing climate data, to the Park managers and J. del Río from the Andalusian Environmental Agency for their guidance and valuable information in the field, and to F. Maestre for the English revision. Financial support was given by FEDER Funds, Junta de Andalucía (GLOCHARID and SEGALERT P09–RNM-5048 projects), Organismo Autónomo de Parques Nacionales (Proyecto 066/2007), and Ministerio

are well developed.

ecosystem functioning stability?

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**19** 

*Greece* 

**Linking Sea Level Rise Damage and** 

*1University of Aegean, School of the Environment, Mytilini, Lesvos,* 

*University of Athens, Department of Geology and Geo-Environment,* 

Areti Kontogianni1, Christos Tourkolias1, Michalis Skourtos1 and Maria Papanikolaou2

*2Cambridge Quaternary Department of Geography &* 

**Vulnerability Assessment: The Case of Greece** 

Throughout the course of modern history, coasts have been a substantial means of human development and an ever-growing number of people still continue to colonize the coasts worldwide. Coasts comprise dynamic and complex socio-ecological systems, encompassing a variety of biotic and abiotic elements. Their complexity and dynamics are reflected in the multiplicity of their forms. Their dynamic nature is responsible for their high productivity, leading both to periodic changes and gradual mutation. The marine ecosystems, by storing carbon dioxide and by releasing oxygen to the atmosphere through the living processes of the phytoplankton population, play a significant role in regulating climate. The coastal areas help create and preserve microclimates. The existence of coastal forests and wetlands ensures minimization of floods, erosion and other natural disasters, and offers valuable regulating and supporting ecosystem services. The importance of coastal resources for the prosperity of coastal areas can be specified through the ecosystem services and goods, which support the human life (Daily, 1997; Turner et al., 2001; Beaumont, 2007; Kontogianni

et al., 2010a). The categorization of coastal services and goods is presented in Table 1.

However, the ensuing anthropogenic activities of industrialization and economic growth have brought the coastal areas under intense pressure. Climatic change accentuates these pressures while it makes mean sea level rise (SLR) one of the most predictable and alarming impacts globally (Church et al., 2001; Nicholls, 2007). To make things worse, SLR is known to be rather inelastic against the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (OECD, 2006), a phenomenon known as "commitment to SLR". That is, even if drastic reduction policies globally succeed in stabilizing the climate, SLR and the accompanying phenomena of coastal erosion and storm surges will continue to occur for centuries (Meehl et al., 2005; Wigley, 2005), causing possible tipping points for some systems (Tipping Points Report, 2009). This chapter examines the impacts of SLR on the Greek coastal zone and appraises their economic dimension. Researchers engaged in studies like this face two important issues. The first is the quantification of the economic impacts (damages) caused by the losses of coastal areas due to SLR. The second is the *ex ante* estimation of welfare gains from reducing SLR risks, since this estimation constitutes an important input for decision-making regarding

**1. Introduction** 

