Terrace Landscapes as Green Infrastructures for a Climate-smart Agriculture to Mitigate Climate Change Impacts.

Climate change is anticipated to impact adversely diverse levels of organized life. Mediterranean countries, counting Greece encounter the problem of increased desertification, with its islands being listed as areas of high risk. The Aegean islands are faced with major confrontations as areas of abandoned terraces with low vegetation cover. Nowadays, terrace fields are crucial as green infrastructures to mitigate climate change impacts, as they improve rainfall absorbency, reduce soil erosion, smooth extreme summer temperatures, moderate the risk of floods and forest fires while preserve the biodiversity and ecosystems services. LIFE–TERRASCAPE project aims to revitalize island terrace farming, through the implementation of Land Stewardship (LS) enterprise for the first time in Greece, in association to Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) applications. The study aims to measures of innovative agricultural establishment and production as an integrated adaptation strategy that elaborates new technologies and methods to mitigate climate change to terrace landscapes in island ecosystems. The cultivation plan and the technologies implemented to terracing restoration to protect land resources are presented and discussed.