The study presented in this paper takes part of a research project carried out for the past 20 years and it is, for now, its last stage. It's a global landscape valuation method focused on vegetation as a main element of different units that can be evaluated. So far, the use of this method has resulted in numerous works: books, articles, book chapters, communications and presentations and it has been applied in the study of different temperate and boreal regions of Europe and America. The method has been applied in the study and assessment of diverse vegetation landscapes of the Collsacabra shire. The objective to verify its effectiveness and viability in other areas to the previously outlined. In this case the high scores are registered on beech grove with  box, cloud grass and holm oak-oak, while the lowest scores were registered on mesophilous box and juniper shrub and on xenophytic shrub.

The declaration of Protected Areas has frequently led to conflicts with local populations because of nature conservation management. In response to this reality new methods and strategies are emerging that are looking for a better integration of the social component in Protected Areas. This article shows the results of a Socio-Environmental Survey (SES) conducted during the elaboration of a Protected Area proposal for the Andalusian Protected Areas Network in the Subbetic agricultural “campiña”, between Seville and Cádiz provinces (Southern Spain). Based on the data obtained, the application of the Protected Landscape figure (type Category V of IUCN) associated to an open participatory management model is proposed and discussed.

The knowledge about the migration movements of commercial species of crustaceans is of a great importance in the management of their fisheries. There is no complete technological solution for the research of detailed migration routes, but data loggers which record environmental parameters are broadly used and available at reasonable prices. The application developed in this work will allow researchers to infer migration routes of benthic animals, using depth recorded by data loggers in combination with bathymetry models of the study areas.

Although the megalithic phenomenon in southern Iberia has received attention since the mid-nineteenth century, there has been very little attention paid to the role that megalithic structures played in the organization of prehistoric landscapes. Just as in other areas of Europe, however, southern Iberian megalithic structures must have played complex roles in the social organization of landscapes that go far beyond their use as funerary containers. Using examples from our work in southern Iberia, we employ GIS-based spatial analysis to explore for the first time various aspects of the landscape dimension of these monuments. We discuss three case-studies for which fresh field data have been recently made available. In the first (Almadén de la Plata) we find patterns of association between medieval transhumance routes and megaliths, and we use cost-surface modelling to suggest that medieval routes may reflect earlier, prehistoric patterns of movement which in turn suggest that megalithic structures functioned in this area as waypoints within an emerging mobility system for people and livestock. In the second case (Aroche) we show correlations between the locations of megaliths and theoretical territories defined by isochrones and contrast this pattern with the distribution of nonmegalithic funerary sites of the Early Bronze Age, concluding that the spatial distribution of megaliths in this region may relate to their role as landmarks. Lastly we describe a far more specific relationship which we have encountered in the Antequera region, where we believe we have identified a relationship between the orientation of the megalithic structure of Menga, a prominent natural feature and several newly discovered prehistoric sites. Together, these three examples suggest that the current focus on typology, chronology and contents in the study of Iberian megaliths needs to be matched with efforts to identify and interpret the often highly complex structure of the prehistoric landscapes of which they form an integral part.