Search

[EN] In Europe, more than 70% of the population lives in an urban area. All the challenges related to land use conflicts, demographic changes, climate resilience and human well-being are concentrated inside the cities, since the population is already living in urban areas, which are more and more compact and dependent on grey infrastructure. In this context, urban green infrastructure represents a sustainable solution to maintain the benefits and services provided by urban ecosystems and an efficient urban planning tool to face the urban challenges. The sustainability of our cities can be reached adopting an innovative vision using the concept of ecosystem services of the urban green infrastructure. Different initiatives to assess the benefits provided by green infrastructure have emerged in the last decade. However, very few take into account the whole range of services provided by urban green infrastructure. The present article provides a systematic search and synthesis of the most important literature to review indicators of urban green infrastructure. The main goal is to give an insight of how urban green infrastructure is measured in practice. Results show the set of ecosystem services that are being considered when assessing sustainability of green infrastructure and identify the most recurrent indicators at the different scales. This work is expected to contribute to the improvement of the evaluation of green infrastructure effectiveness for providing benefits for urban dwellers., This work was supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the project Green Cities For Climate and Water Resilience, Sustainable Economic Growth, Healthy Citizens and Environments with reference 730283.

Universities are showing a growing interest in becoming green institutions and improving campus open space management. Well-designed urban landscapes guided by green criteria integrate eco-friendly infrastructure which may be effective in facing urban challenges in the context of climate change. Student preferences and uses of campus outdoor environment should draw the attention of campus landscape planners. This study aims to analyse how the university community perceives landscape services provided by the Spanish Universitat Polit&egrave, cnica de Val&egrave, ncia&rsquo, s campus open space. An online questionnaire was sent to the university community to check its opinions, level of satisfaction, and their demands related to the current situation of the outdoor areas. Campus open spaces with different urban green infrastructure have a high potential to provide cultural, provisioning, and regulation landscape services. Respondents perceive the main benefits provided by campus open spaces to be that they are a place to relax, meet friends, and pass through. Their needs related to the welfare of outdoor areas and their preferences differ according to age, occupation, and time spent at the campus. This paper intends to help the university to meet environmental guidelines and to help other universities in their endeavour to reach sustainability and ensure the university community&rsquo, s well-being.

Decision support systems (DSSs) are important in decision-making environments with conflicting interests. Many DSSs developed have not been used in practice. Experts argue that these tools do not respond to real user needs and that the inclusion of stakeholders in the development process is the solution. However, it is not clear which features of participatory development of DSSs result in improved uptake and better outcomes. A review of papers, reporting on case studies where DSSs and other decision tools (information systems, software and scenario tools) were developed with elements of participation, was carried out. The cases were analysed according to a framework created as part of this research; it includes criteria to evaluate the development process and the outcomes. Relevant aspects to consider in the participatory development processes include establishing clear objectives, timing and location of the process; keeping discussions on track; favouring participation and interaction of individuals and groups; and challenging creative thinking of the tool and future scenarios. The case studies that address these issues show better outcomes; however, there is a large degree of uncertainty concerning them because developers have typically neither asked participants about their perceptions of the processes and resultant tools nor have they monitored the use and legacy of the tools over the long term., The authors would like to thank COST Action FP0804-Forest Management Decision Support Systems (FORSYS) for financing a three month Short-Term Scientific Mission (STSM) in Forest Research (Roslin, UK) in 2012, making possible this research; Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for supporting the project Multicriteria Techniques and Participatory Decision-Making for Sustainable Management (Ref. ECO2011-27369) where the leading author is involved; and the Regional Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports (Valencia, Spain) for financing a research fellowship (Ref. ACIF/2010/248).

[EN] Aim of study: to identify criteria and indicators (C&I) of sustainable forest management (SFM) under Mediterranean conditions. The indicators are meant to monitor changes in the provision of ecosystem services at a local scale (forest management unit, FMU). We support that if a forest provides a bundle of ecosystem services its management can be considered sustainable; thus, we adjust C&I to an ecosystem services classification. Area of study: La Hunde y La Palomera, a public FMU in the region of Valencia (east of Spain), 100km southwest of the city of Valencia. Material and methods: first, a literature review of the following themes took part: SFM, features of Mediterranean forests, ecosystem services and C&I. Some C&I were proposed and, later on, a participatory process in Ayora, the municipality where the mentioned FMU is located, was carried out with different stakeholders (forestry professionals, users for recreation, hunters, environmentalists and professionals of cultural and rural development activities) in order for them to value the C&I proposed according to their management preferences for La Hunde y La Palomera. Research highlights: 15 criteria and 133 indicators were identified: a balance has been achieved among economic, social and ecological concerns. People value the ecological issues associated to forestry on top and the economic ones at the bottom. Results suggest that SFM under Mediterranean conditions is based on more than one product and on the provision of several ecosystem services, The Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness supports the project Multicriteria Techniques and Participatory Decision-Making for Sustainable Management (Ref. ECO2011-27369) and the Regional Council of Education, Culture and Sports (Valencia, Spain) finances a research fellowship (Ref. ACIF/2010/248).

[EN] The Huerta de Valencia is defined as the agricultural plane irrigated by Turia River that surrounds the city of Valencia, in the east coast of Spain. Its origins are dated in the 8th century with the arrival of the Muslim tribes in Spain and it is one of the last six “huerta” landscapes left in Europe. Traditionally, the Huerta has been in continuous evolution because of changes in agricultural management that answered to changes in the demands from society. But, since the second half of the twentieth century, landscape transformation has been faster and more extensive resulting in profound changes. This paper focuses on land use change in Huerta de Valencia with an emphasis on agricultural land abandonment. The objective is to assess spatial changes between 2008 and 2013 using aerial photograph interpretation and field survey. During this period, there has been a decrease in the pace of urban and infrastructure growth due to the economic crisis. However, land abandonment has become one of the most important factors for change in agricultural landscapes. The analysis of landscape evolution and historicity could give us some clues about the resilience and sustainability of certain cultural landscapes. This topic is relevant in certain landscapes such as la Huerta de Valencia.

[EN] The management of forests that considers the social and environmental aspects associated to the forest activity is called sustainable forest management (SFM). There is not an agreed definition to be applied worldwide. This study intends to find out the requirements of SFM in the Mediterranean region and takes Spain as a case study. It is also aimed to determine the sustainability of current forest management in Spain, the difficulties to achieve SFM and proposals to do so. An initial diagnosis of the situation in Spain is obtained by means of a SWOT analysis and, then, a questionnaire with forestry experts is carried out to verify and broaden the conclusions of the analysis. Results show that the key aspects of SFM are management planning, the consideration of the natural resources (biodiversity, habitats, soil and water), and the contribution to rural development. Management planning and rural development are scarcely considered currently in forest management (12% of the forest area has a management plan). The main difficulties that explain this situation are the low profitability of Mediterranean forests, the lack of economic compensation for the ecosystem services (ES) provided by forests, and the bad coordination between forestry and land planning. The way to SFM goes through the existence of fair mechanisms that pay forest owners for the ES provided and the market promotion of all forest products. For the previous to succeed, it is relevant to make society aware of the matter. Finally, it is important to increase inventory and data collection on forests to identify priorities of research and management., [ES] Se define la gestión forestal sostenible (GFS) como aquélla que considera los aspectos sociales y ambientales asociados a la actividad forestal. No existe una definición universal del concepto. Este estudio trata de identificar los requerimientos de GFS en la región mediterránea y se centra en España como estudio de caso. Se busca también determinar el nivel de sostenibilidad de la gestión forestal actual en España, las dificultades de su sistema para alcanzar los objetivos de GFS y propuestas para mejorar la gestión. Se realiza un diagnóstico inicial de la situación española por medio de un análisis DAFO (debilidades, amenazas, fortalezas y oportunidades) y posteriormente se lleva a cabo una consulta a expertos a través de un cuestionario para corroborar y ampliar las conclusiones del análisis. Los resultados muestran que los aspectos clave de GFS son la planificación de la gestión, la consideración de los recursos naturales (biodiversidad, hábitats, suelos y agua), y la contribución al desarrollo rural. La gestión forestal presente presta poca atención a la planificación de la gestión y al desarrollo rural (sólo el 12% de la superficie forestal tiene un plan de gestión). Las principales dificultades que explican esta situación son la baja rentabilidad de los bosques mediterráneos, la falta de compensación económica por la provisión de los bosques de servicios ambientales, y la poca coordinación entre la planificación forestal y la territorial. El camino hacia la GFS pasa por la existencia de mecanismos justos de pago a los propietarios forestales por los servicios ambientales provistos y la promoción en los mercados de todos los productos forestales. Finalmente, es importante aumentar y estandarizar la recolección de datos del estado de los bosques para identificar prioridades de investigación y de gestión., This project started with funds of Dirección General del Medio Natural y Política Forestal of Ministerio de Medio Ambiente y Medio Rural y Marino (Spanish ministry for the environment), it is supported now by Generalitat Valenciana (government of the region of Valencia) through the training programme VALi+d for new researchers (code ACIF/2010/248), and it is framed in a research funded by Dirección General de Investigación y Gestión del Plan Nacional de I+D+i of Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spanish ministry of science) (reference: ECO2011-27369).The project takes place in Universitat Politècnica de València. Authors would like to thank the four institutions for providing the means and resources for this project.

[EN] The European Landscape Convention has encouraged member states to develop tools for landscape planning and management. Landscape character assessment is the most widespread approach. The aim of this paper is to identify the main trends in landscape unit delineation in Spain. For this purpose, 29 works are analysed by the Multiple Correspondence technique (MCA). Each work is characterised by a category of the variables: scale, type of extent, geomorphology, land matrix and visual boundaries. Results show that there is an implicit hierarchy in the way Spanish professionals are mapping landscape units. It is more apparent in variables related to geomorphology and less evident in variables related to land matrix. Regarding visual boundaries, they are not usually used at small scales and are more frequent at intermediate and large scales. The definition of clear criteria that allow comparable classifications and the increased consideration of cultural and perceptual factors is encouraged for future landscape character classifications., This work was supported by DGI and FEDER grant n8 AGL–2004-03263/AGR. We would like to thank Paz Aramburu, Rafael Escribano, Jordi Puig, the enterprise P&G and Florencio Zoido and Valencia Regional Department of Environment for the data provided for this research and also the R&D&I Linguistic Assistance Office at the Universidad Polite´cnica de Valencia for their help in revising and correcting this paper.

The ecosystem services approach has been proven successful to measure the contributions of nature and greenery to human well-being. Ecosystems have an effect on quality of life, but landscapes also, as a broader concept, may contribute to people s well-being. The concept of landscape services, compared to ecosystem services, involves the social dimension of landscape and the spatial pattern resulting from both natural and human processes in the provision of benefits for human-well being. Our aim is to develop a classification for landscape services. The proposed typology of services is built on the Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services (CICES) and on a critical review of existing literature on human well-being dimensions, existing ecosystem service classifications, and landscape perception. Three themes of landscape services are defined, each divided into several groups: provisioning, regulation and maintenance, cultural and social life fulfillment, with the latter focusing on health, enjoyment, and personal and social fulfillment. A special emphasis is made on cultural services, which are especially important when applied to landscape and which have received less attention., This work was developed thanks to the support of UPV mobility grants for lecturers and ECO2011-27369 Research Project.