Arcadia is a rural, mountainous regional unit comprising about 18% of the land area of the

Peloponnese peninsula. It is the peninsula's largest regional unit. According to the 2011 census, it
has about 86,000 inhabitants; its capital, Tripoli, has about 30,000 residents in the city proper, and
about 47,500 total in the greater metropolitan area. [1]
Arcadia consists partly of farmland, and to a larger extent grassland and degenerated shrubland. It
also has three mountain ranges, with forestation mainly at altitudes above 1000 meters: Mainalo, a
winter ski resort, situated in the central north; Parnon in the central south; and Mount Lykaion,
famous for the ancient history and myths associated with it, in the southwest.
Its climate features hot summers and mild winters in the east, the south, and those parts of the
central area that are less than 1000 meters above sea level. Fall and winter are mostly rainy, except
in the mountains to the west and north, Taygetus and Mainalo, which are snowy in winter.

Geology and Hydrogeology[edit]

Closed Basin Vlacherna/Hotoussa/Kandila

Temporary lake Argon Pedion, March 2019

Arcadia is almost totally mountainous and part of the "carbonate platform" (calcareous
or limestone deposits) of the Peloponnese. The whole peninsula was formed by
intense tectonics (faults, overthrusts and regional metamorphism).[2] In Arcadia's central part around
the Tripoli region developed a special form of topography, a geologically fascinating phenomenon:
There are several plains and "intra mountainous basins", even "closed basins": The 30 km long
"Tripoli-Plateau", "Argon Pedion", Basin of Levidi, Basin of Vlacherna Arcadia/Hotoussa/Kandila.[3]
The peculiarity of the plains and basins is a result of intensive karstification: Water seeps into the
underground, rather than eroding and draining the topography by surface waterways. All drainage
runs through ponors (in Greek: καταβόθρες) and subterranean waterways.[4][5] The additional problem
for rural activities in the basins: When winter rains are heavy, the ground is flooded or temporary
lakes arise, even today, as drainage through katavothres is often too slow to start cultivation in due
time.