The purpose of this thesis is to investigate changes in the landscape of Almería in southeastern Spain, particularly in relation to the emergence of the 80,000-acre greenhouse sector. This thesis questions why the province of Almería has the highest concentration of greenhouses in the world and determines what processes led to this industry. The research focuses on local-global scale interactions and environmental history analysis within a political ecology framework. The methods for data collection included literature review of secondary sources and four months living in Almería conducting interviews and field observations. Located in Europes driest desert, the greenhouses of Almería produce millions of tons of produce for European markets. Initially fueled by abundant aquifer water, years of heavy water usage have depleted the quality of the water and led to innovative methods for reducing water use and the introduction of desalination. The Almería hydropolitics associated with water usage and distribution highlight the importance of the greenhouse sector to various levels of government. Almerías environmental history demonstrates profound climate and landscape modifications by human actions fueled by local-global exchanges for resources. Expanding on the geographer David Touts 1980s research on Almería greenhouses, this thesis compares current and past issues, economic and land development, and technologies within the greenhouse sector. This case study presents an opportunity for examining the processes that shaped the environmental history through local-global exchanges that are unique to Almería.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:MONTANA/oai:etd.lib.umt.edu:etd-05202008-114939 |
| Date | 07 August 2008 |
| Creators | Wolosin, Robert Tyrell |
| Contributors | Dr. Daniel T. Spencer, Dr. Ulrich Kamp, Dr. Sarah J. Halvorson |
| Publisher | The University of Montana |
| Source Sets | University of Montana Missoula |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lib.umt.edu/theses/available/etd-05202008-114939/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Montana or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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