Environment The prefecture
Arcadia (Νομός Αρκαδίας) is almost entirely rural and mountainous (Arcadian Plateau). The villages are scattered all over the land; there are only very few cities, even the largest city
Tripoli, Greece, with ca. 30000 inhabitants (without district and hinterland) is relatively small. Steep mountains and
forests are scarcely populated. Extensive forests dominate in the central north (
Mainalo) and the central-south, following the prefectures southern border which marks the mountain chain of the
Parnon, way down to the coast of the
Argolic Gulf. Valleys divide the mountain chains, but they are important draining paths only from November to April, while many brooks even dry up totally. The size of the valleys indicate, there were larger water quantities in earlier time periods. On steeply inclined slopes the topsoil is often drastically eroded, only degenerated
shrubland prevails.
Alluvial sediment deposits are scarce. Accumulated soil structures are found only in plains, basins or flat coastal sections. The climate of the
Peloponnese is similar in all parts, the temperature varies only in relation to the height. The influence of the
Mediterranean Sea is omnipresent, as no point of the land is at a larger distance than 50 miles. The climate is best classified as
mediterranean with dry hot summers and mild wet winters. As the dry season may last for months, the thin rests of soil on mountain slopes are merely covered by
Maquis shrubland, often of a
degraded character. Even then, forests, when healthy and dense, are only mildly more humid and cooler. Very dominant is the intensive
karstification, which is present throughout. This dries out the humidity of soil; the often closed character of karst depressions may cause floods, as subterranean drainage can be too slow. But during the relatively short springtime, the rain of the last winter and mild temperatures may result in a very beautiful, blossoming season, where
biodiversity of Arcadian landscapes will show (April, May). As intensive dry summer periods may cause severe lack of freshwater, retaining it in
reservoirs would be an important contribution to public health by supplying sufficient water at all times. At the same time publicly supplied water for
irrigation and, eventually, for electricity from
power stations, could help to develop the country. The land, which is suitable for herding or agriculture, is locally cultivated in traditional forms only. There is no industrial production in Arcadia. There was migration in all of Greece, in the Peloponnese and also in Arcadia's Argon Pedion, mainly after 1945 to North America and Australia. The infrastructure of transportation is miserable. While one heavily frequented highway connects Athens with
Patras along the
Corinthian Gulf, there is only one other modern highway (motorway), connecting
Corinth with Tripoli and the south (at
Megalopoli with two divisions, towards
Messenia and
Laconia). The partly tolled motorways are the only constructions, where the very mountainous, difficult topography of the Peloponnese does not dictate the route. The only railway line serving Arcadia and the south (Corinthia-Tripoli-
Kalamata), a narrow-gauge railway, was partly refitted and then – before the new operation – liquidated, including goods traffic in 2011.
The polje Argon Pedion The closed basin Argon Pedion (4 x 2 km, a polje similar to poljes in the karstic
Dinaric Alps) is a stand-alone part of the Tripoli Basin (30 x 6 km) in the northeast. In a publication the Greek geologist I. Mariolakos describes the Tripoli Basin, the basin of Argon Pedion and other similar neighboring basins of Arcadia and compares them with the classical myths, which are broadly present among Greeks. Two mountains, opposite to each other form a 250 m wide flat bottom at the south end of Argon Pedion. But as this bottom gap between the mountains is higher than the basin's bottom, it functions like a dam. Consequently, only floods with a water level of more than 5 m can be drained aboveground. This turns the plain into a closed basin. The rain down the mountains fills the draining ditches, then floods the untilled plain (grassland), making the soil sucked with water. Exceptionally large rain waters may swell up to a temporary lake, whose upper border may not or may reach the acres in the slightly higher upper basin section, that is cultivated by the village Saga. The subsurface drainage through the katavothra may be so slow that it will extend into the vegetation time (April). The grassland is ideal for herding sheep and goats, as a ground sucked with water makes wanton grass vegetation, that dries up later in the dry period. With "cows of the poor" many people of the two villages at the borders of the basin make their living. When the grassland is dried up, the goats, which are well known for their abilities to undemanding feed and easy digesting, weatherproof in hot and cold and climbing well even on bare rock may move to the mountain slopes around, where they can feed on sparse vegetation of shrubs. Yet this bares the danger of
overgrazing, as plants are kept down by these animal's preferred feeding of all kinds of buds. Nestani-Saga-Polje_Arcadia_Greece.jpg|Idyllic Arcadia? shepherd-Likouria_Achaea_Peloponnese_Greece.jpg|
Shepherd from Likouria,
Achaia Livestock-(over-)grazing Peolonnes Greece Ziege.jpg|
Overgrazing? by goat herding The village Saga at the upper end of the basin remains focused on its cultivating the fertile soils of the upper basin, even so, the low level of mechanization and the declining importance of traditional land cultivation is imminent. However, around the village, on alluvial grounds and on slope terraces, where the soil is as rich as in the plain, the villagers successfully established gardens and niche-plantation. == Geology, Hydrogeology ==