According to the Blue Plan, about 65% of the Mediterranean population is already settled in urban areas. The urbanization rate remains high due to demographic growth, the rural-urban migration and international migrations, especially in the southern and eastern parts of the Mediterranean where 150 millions urban citizens live. This urbanization trend has developed over the centuries, and today the Mediterranean hosts over 30 cities of more than one million inhabitants.
In non protected wetlands areas, most impacts of urbanization are negative with loss of wetlands and degradation by pollution, use for waste pit, noise and people disturbance. However, urbanization provides also opportunities for urban wetlands development, creation and management for recreative, production and water regulation purposes. Ramsar has recently decided to strengthen its effort on urban wetlands.
The coastline and large river valleys have always been very attractive areas for human settlements. Early Mediterranean civilizations and cities already settled preferably in these areas. All countries show an increasing trend in the proportion of their urban population, as well as within-country migrations towards the coastline. Being largely located along the coast or in river valleys, wetlands have naturally suffered from these trends. Thousands of hectares have been converted in most countries to urban developments, and the trend continues nowadays, although no precise statistics exist for wetlands specifically.
