earth science

Medcities

Medcities is a earth science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Medcities rather than just read about it. In short: MedCities is a network of Mediterranean cities created in Barcelona in 1991. It is much more than a network of 91 Mediterranean cities and metropolitan areas; it is a shared project for the future — a community that believes in the power of cooperation to protect our territories and improve people's lives.

Key takeaways

Medcities belongs to earth science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Medcities to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Medcities from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

MedCities is a network of Mediterranean cities created in Barcelona in 1991. It is much more than a network of 91 Mediterranean cities and metropolitan areas; it is a shared project for the future — a community that believes in the power of cooperation to protect our territories and improve people's lives. MedCities is the meeting point where municipalities from the three shores of the Mediterranean connect, support one another, and learn together to face today's and tomorrow's challenges — from the climate crisis to the urban transformations needed to make cities sustainable and resilient. The work focuses on four main areas: green and resilient cities (urban planning, energy, and water), waste management, coastal cities, and sustainable urban mobility. Through innovative projects and a united voice, MedCities ensures that local priorities are heard by decision-making institutions — national, supranational, and European — and that each city has the resources and momentum to build a more resilient and cohesive Mediterranean. Ultimately, MedCities is a commitment to future generations, driven by the conviction that, by working together, we can create real and lasting change. In short, we are the only forum for political cohesion across the three shores of the Mediterranean: indispensable today and always. The goals of the network are to strengthen the environmental management capability of local administration, through decentralised activities involving technical assistance, and also to reinforce awareness of interdependence and common responsibility regarding the policies of urban environmental conservation in the Mediterranean basin. From 2017 MedCities acts as an independent association.

History The creation of MedCities was a consequence of METAP's objective of strengthening decentralised actions involving technical assistance as the best means of promoting awareness of urban environmental problems and making those actions into a vehicle for empowering municipalities in developing countries in respect of management of urban environmental issues. MedCities continues offering this support. Afterwards, MedCities has extended its activities from the initial local environment to the wider local sustainable development field, focusing on cities strategic planning, urban resilience, environmental and biodiversity, social cohesion, or economic development projects .

Objectives The MedCities network is a tool to strengthen the environmental and sustainable development management capability of local administration, but it is also useful in order to identify the domains where a common activation could be the most useful means to improve the regional environmental conditions. The goals of the MedCities Network are the following: - to reinforce the awareness of interdependence and common responsibility regarding the policies of urban environmental conservation in the Mediterranean basin; - to strengthen the role and the means (institutional, financial and technical capability) of municipalities in the implementation of local sustainable development policies; - to develop awareness and involvement of citizens and consumers on urban sustainable development; - to set up a direct cooperation policy in order to implement the partnership between coastal Mediterranean cities. All the activities and projects MedCities carries on are based on the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (Sustainable Development Goals or SDG). The Mediterranean network defines itself as the SDG 17, Global Partnership for Sustainable Development as MedCities works with other organizations and key stakeholders.

Members The network originally comprised one city in each country, with a preference for cities other than the capital. Then an accord was subsequently reached expanding possible membership to two cities per country. After the celebration of the General Assembly 2025 -held in Barcelona- and the latest members approved, these are the 91 city members, from 17 countries:

MedCities also has the following observing members: The Catalan Agency for Development Cooperation (ACCD), the Mediterranean Citizens' Assembly Foundation (FACM), the Provincial Council of Barcelona (Diputació de Barcelona), ANIMA Invest Network, Hariri Foundation, MEDPAN, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean, and the European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed).

Organisation General Assembly: it is the supreme body of the Association, and it is composed of all its members. It must be convened at least one every three years, and it gives a ruling on the items on the agenda proposed by the board, and on various others issues. It elects the President and the members of the Board. Board: the Association is governed by a Board of 5 to 9 members: the President, the Secretary General and from three to seven members. It meets at least once a year. Presidency: the President represents the Association in all acts of civil life, and he is invested with all the powers to this effect. The mandate of the President covers the period from one General Assembly to the other. The Presidency has been held by Barcelona, Marseille, Tangier, Limassol, Rome and Tétouan. The current President of MedCities is Montpellier, represented by Mr. Michaël Delafosse, Mayor of Montpellier. General Secretariat: it is an administrative body which helps the Association's president and Board in their respective tasks. It is managed by a General Secretary and it takes care of the management of the network, identifying the needs of the cities, representing the Medcities network in international events (together with member cities), ensuring technical and financial coordination, the preparation and follow-up of field projects, the organisation of the General Assembly and the Board's meetings and the publishing of presentation material. The General Secretariat has a four-years mandate, and may be re-elected. The MedCities Board of Directors for the period 2023-2026 was approved by the members at the Extraordinary General Meeting held online, on 31 January 2023. The composition of the current Board is as follows:

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Medcities

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Medcities claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In earth science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Medcities before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Medcities ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Medcities

In research: Medcities appears in earth science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Medcities in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Medcities is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1991 establishments, Climate change organizations, Mediterranean, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Medcities outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Medcities in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Medcities means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Medcities out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Medcities in simple terms?

Why does Medcities matter?

Because it connects several earth science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Medcities?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Medcities.