Procesos de conformación histórica y tendencias de futuro de los paisajes de las altiplanicies y el sureste árido andaluz

RESUMEN: El trabajo analiza los cambios en los paisajes rurales del sureste árido andaluz a lo largo de la historia. Los paisajes tradicionales se formaron en tiempos medievales y permanecen vigentes hasta mediados del siglo XX. Los paisajes contemporáneos rompen con la estrategia de subsistencia anterior. Las producciones se orientan hacia los mercados internacionales y nacionales. Y, como tendencias de futuro, aparecen las producciones ecológicas y cultivos en experimentación. ABSTRACT: This paper analyses changes in rural landscapes in the arid south east of Andalucía over the course of its history. Traditional landscapes were shaped in the Middle Ages and endured up until the mid 20th Century. The traditional agrarian landscape of the high plains and arid south east of Andalucía has had a secular presence in its cultivated lands and has also served another purpose: responding to the most basic needs of peasants farmers and their families to ensure adequate food and subsistence, as well as affording them the possibility of selling or exchanging any surplus for other products they might need. The roots of this landscape can be traced backto the Arab domination (8th to 15th Centuries) and subsequent Moorish occupation (up to the early 16th Century). It is a landscape with diverse and promiscuous polyculture. During the 16th and 17th Centuries, once the Moors had been expelled, there was a drive to repopulate these areas from the rest of Spain, and the landscape became more Castilian, with large Latifundio estates becoming increasingly important, along with the production of cereals and livestock farming. Ensuring that the soil was suitable for agriculture, on fl at and gently sloping land, was achieved through controlled burning (or grazing) of the primitive Mediterranean brushland. Once the plots of land had been cultivated, they would be left to rest for a long period of many years until they had recovered their fertility and stored suffi cient water. Howeveron sloping lands - making up the majority of this territory - small plots were created, suitable for cultivation, in the form of terraces supported by dry stone walls cut into the contours of the hills. The result was an artifi cial landscape comprising thousands of small stone terraces which were spread over steps in the foothills, creating small or tiny fl at plots of land suitable for cultivation. Another original feature of the traditional landscape was the development of a series of original techniques to capture water, the likes of which are only found in the north of Africa. Contemporary landscapes break away from the previous strategy of subsistence. Production was focused on national and international markets. And, in terms of futuretrends, organic production and experimental crops are appearing. During the 19th Century and the fi rst half of the 20th Century, the arid south east was incorporated into the global markets through the supply of minerals and the fi rst intensive production. A commercial bourgeoisie then emerged for the exportation of sugar beet, vines which produced the Ohanes table grape, oranges and vegetables. Since the second half of the 20th Century, the agricultural landscape of the arid south east has become increasingly dependent on new technologies and exterior infl uences, in the form of genetic varieties for more profi table crops - fruit, vegetables and organic crops - and new irrigation techniques, as well as long-distance transfers of water from the desalination plants on the coast or reservoirs.