THE DEINTENSIFICATION OF TERRACED AGRICULTURAL LAND NEAR TREVELEZ, SIERRA-NEVADA, SPAIN

Changes in the intensity of agricultural land-use have been examined i n a mountain environment in the Sierra Nevada, Andalucia. The land-use changes have occurred in response to rural depopulation and other fac tors since 1950 and have manifested themselves as a deintensification and sometimes abandonment of irrigated terraces which were extensively cropped as recently as the 1970s. The pattern of deintensification an d consequential environmental impact is described for one municipio, T revelez. Ecological changes have been consequent upon the intensity of grazing and the collapse of irrigation systems. These changes have be en assessed by rapid appraisal and the implications for the agricultur al landscape are identified. Classification techniques using Landsat T hematic Mapper (TM) data have allowed estimates to be made of the area l cover of deintensification.