Summary:The objective of this activity is to make a map of the landscape quality of the Priorat regionin an attempt to raise awareness of this issue and be part of the candidacy of thePriorat region to be declared an agricultural cultural landscape of the Mediterranean mountains by the UNESCO World Heritage Commission. The technique applied is Multi-Criteria Assessment (MCA) integrated into a Geographic Information System (GIS). MCA consists of evaluating a series of alternatives. This method can be used to inventory, classify, analyse and order a series of alternatives based on the criteria relevant to the evaluation. In this case, the criteria applied must be geographical or territorial, that is, they must be maps integrated into a GIS, through which the MCA technique will be applied. Thus, first the criteria for determining the quality of the landscape must be decided (for example, land use, slopes, orientations), then the importance that each criterion has (for example, land use represents 40% of the quality of the landscape while the slope represents only 5%), and finally, this MCA criteria must be applied to the GIS.
Summary:Anarea within the Priorat region will be analysed, due to its representativeness as an agricultural landscape or its particular interest. Within this area, the different features of the landscape will be analysed, especially those that can be included within the traditional agricultural landscape. In particular, the aim is to determine, characterise and analyse the different levels of protection of:
- The different habitats of interest and natural areas in general. - The different types of agricultural areas and their value. - The agricultural or non-agricultural heritage present in the chosen area. - Existing non-agricultural buildings
Once the analysis has been made, the state of the agricultural cultural landscape in the selected environment will be diagnosed. Then the criteria will be discussed both for conserving the most interesting elements and for other types of intervention that are considered necessary to maintain or achieve a level of landscape quality in accordance with the denomination of cultural landscape heritage of humanity, which is the aim of the PRIORitAT association.
Final Project - Collaborative research about indigenous environmental governance
Organisation: Instituto Universitario de la Paz y los Conflictos of Granada’s Univesity.
Summary: The experience consists of doing a practice in the initial phase of a collaborative research on indigenous environmental governance. Among the general objectives of this research, it seeks to initiate processes of interaction between academia and social movements and local communities. The intention is to build bridges between the academic world and grassroots communities affected by socio-environmental conflicts to establish mutual and collaborative learning dynamics and seeking solutions to transform this conflict. In addition to the University Institute of Peace, it is planned to participate in the project of the University of Life Sciences of Norway and the University of Stockholm, as well as South American partners as yet unconfirmed.
Landscape and environmental planning criteria in territorial planning
Summary: The activity to be carried out by the students focuses on identifying and characterising the main values of the Priorat landscape. Students will choose a river basin that allows them to carry out an integrated landscape study and evaluate the area. The study must include:
- A descriptive diagnosis of the study area - The definition and classification of landscape units in at least three taxonomic ranges - The characterisation of defined units - A landscape diagnosis, emphasising aspects such as conservation quality, aesthetic quality, environmental fragility and the recent evolution of the landscape.
Fieldwork and direct contact with the area and the people involved will be very important for carrying out the study. The study results will be expressed mainly through cartographic products. They will be very useful in the Priorat region's application to be considered an agricultural cultural landscape of the Mediterranean mountains by the UNESCO World Heritage Commission.
External Internships - Digital mapping of the Catalan coast
Organisation:EcologistesenAcció de Tarragona i l'Ebre (Ecologists of Tarragona and l'Ebre in Action).
Summary:The student carried out these external internships in the 2012-2013 academic year, collaborating in the dissemination and awareness-raising tasks of the NGO EcologistesenAcció de Tarragona i l'Ebre. Specifically, the project focused on producing cartography on the quality of Catalan beaches, studying the changes in uses (mainly urbanisation) in the immediate surroundings of urban beaches, and analysing land use plans for the beaches of the Tarragona area. The digital cartography is accessible online and shows the black flags and virgin beaches identified in recent years by EcologistesenAcció (Ecologists in Action). It also includes information on artificial reefs, phanerogam meadows and protected natural areas. The cartographic viewer is the "Sistema d'informació de BandereresNegresd'EcologistesenAcció (SIBNEA)" (Ecologists in Action Black Flag Information System).
