Based on both research and practical experience, the authors of this book offer a holistic methodological approach to landscape design and planning that reflects an awareness of the scarcity of natural resources in the Mediterranean and the need to aim for long term ecological stability and environmental sustainability. The approach is a direct response to the problems that result from the application of landscape design, planning and management practices that have been imported, often with a total disregard to the regional context, whether in the Mediterranean or in other semi-arid regions of the world. The principles of the approach, therefore, can be used as a theoretical foundation for holistic landscape research, creative ecological design and sustainable planning that is appropriate environmentally and culturally, both in the Mediterranean and elsewhere.