|
|
Geographical Location and Natural Conditions
The city is located on a coastal depression formed by the confluence of the rivers Guadalhorce and Guadalmedina. Málaga and its surroundings occupies important geographic, economic and as well cultural key positions in south of Spain. It is the third industrial municipality in Spain and one of the main ports in the Mediterranean area. Its urban structure is characterized by being spread along the coast in direction North- South while to the west part the city is surrounded by a mountainous range, which also marks the urban edge. The Montes of Málaga covers the central and northern the parts of the coastal depression. Its relief is characterized by hills covered with diverse landscapes formations, like forests of pine groves, oaks and cork oaks forests.
The vegetation of the city and its region has a great diversity of tropical species. Very common species are jacarandaes, cypresses, eucalyptuses and ficus.
At the end of the 4th century the Arab conquest - the era of major progress started. From the 11th century the city developed to a commercial centre and exported to the whole Mediterranean - to the seaport of the Arabian kingdom of Granada. With the reconquest in 1487 by catholic monarchs the reorganisation of urban areas was started. It was a period of decline with epidemics, earth-quakes and inefficient administration. During the
last century a new boom acquired the city. Till eighties Málaga grew in a rapid, massive and disordered form and its economic model was oriented towards practically in the binomial service-building industry. The axis of this urbanisation was the Costa del Sol, which spreads over the coastal fringe and constitutes one of main areas of the tourism industry worldwide. When in the nineties its growth is stabilized the main objectives of the city was directed to establish a model of sustainable development and to achieve balanced levels of infrastructures, urbanisation, green spaces and communitarian equipments. In the following years the targets to improve the urban quality are going on mostly with interventions in degraded districts. In period 1996 to 2001 the area of green spaces in Málaga had grown 256% providing 2 sq km of usable green spaces.
The city has a Technological Park - Parque Tecnológico de Andalucía - which is since 1992 home for different companies, and actually in expansion. Located to the north of the City of Malaga, the 4,900 ha of this park include mostly the left margin of river basin of the Guadalmedina River. The history of this area very is bound to the settlements that caused the substitution of the Mediterranean forests by cultures of vines, almonds tree and olive trees to reach a greater economic performance. From this moment strong floods began to affect the city of Malaga. Economy heavily depends on tourism and services. Beside the tourism the high-tech and telecommunication industry has been settled. Companies producing construction material act also in the city like the food and agriculture industry.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Malaga
is a city in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, in the region of
Andalusia. The city lays on the Costa del Sol and it is framed by
the presence of the Mediterranean and Malaga's Mountain ranges.
This Mountain ranges are protected areas and parts of the National
Park of Montes de Málaga.
The
climate is temperate and clear. In the inland the summers are hot
and along the coast moderate and sunny. 
The
city was founded by Phoenicians in the 12th century B.C. Málaga
has been Carthaginian, Roman and Arabian colony. Under the Romans,
and especially under the Arabs, it developed into a strong military
station.
Malaga's
economy has been reliant on construction industry, tourism services
but also high research sectors. The Costa del Sol is one of World's
leading destinations for holiday tourism. 
