fernando allende

This contribution is focused on the valuation of the spaces that remain vacant at the city border, as part of a future urban Green Infrastructure. To that end, they have been identified and characterized. Furthermore, a specific GIS has been developed for Madrid, the largest urban metropolitan area in Spain. This chapter is organised in five parts and the final conclusions. First of all, in the introduction, the general objectives are exposed and the concept and importance of the open spaces in the city are studied. Secondly, the methodology describes the design of the research and the development of the GIS. Afterwards, the urban and territorial context, where these pieces have their origin, are characterized. This is a synthetic approach which also includes the recent evolution of the legislation as well as that of the city. Through this evolution it is possible to see how these pieces have been framed into a failed green belt since the middle of the last century. Fourthly, a presentation of these open spaces, their urban regime and their land uses is carried out. Subsequently, their valuation in a potential network of open spaces in the Madrilenian metropolitan area is performed. The basic criteria for this valuation is the land adjacent to each of these open spaces. Finally, in the conclusions, we set out the evidence arising from this research, requiring the need for having accurate tools, such as GIS, in order to reach solid proposals that deal with the challenge of Green Infrastructures. We also believe that the conservation and integration of open spaces should be a priority in general strategies of urban development for mitigation Climate Change and to reduce the effects of Global Warming.

Se pretende analizar y comparar la evolucion de los aprovechamientos de diferentes fresnedas trasmochadas de Fraxinus angustifolia en el piedemonte de la Sierra de Guadarrama (Madrid, Espana). En este sector de la Peninsula Iberica el espacio forestal ha sufrido intensas transformaciones que han modificado la superficie de la masa arbolada. En ocasiones las variaciones no han afectado a la extension superficial arbolada sino a su funcionalidad productiva. Este es el caso de las especies ubicadas en los sectores mas productivos de fosas y depresiones del centro peninsular. Los fresnos han sido y siguen siendo formaciones silvopratenses productivas que, en el caso de Madrid, constituyen uno de los paisajes de mayor interes cultural y natural de la Peninsula, pese a que la presion urbanistica, el productivismo intensivo y la desaparicion de la ganaderia tradicional y de los canales de trasmision de la cultura silvoganadera, hayan generado una disminucion progresiva de las practicas pro...

The upper Ebro River flows from the Cantanbrian Mountains and through La Lora and Lora de Bricia syncline plateaus (Burgos). The Ebro river has shaped a narrow valley there -the Ebro Canyon- which is now a protected area: the Hoces del Alto Ebro y Rudrón Natural PArk. The mountain slopes and the canyon channel have a high amount of carbonated tufa accumulation, which are more or less disconnected from the present day watercourses. However, the accumulation processes continue today. An example of a tufa complex, including its dams and terraces, has been studied in Tubilla del Agua. This has been contrastedwith the Orbaneja spring tufa. The carbonate accumulation maxima took place during the Atlantic period, from U/Th and OSL ages (6.4 ka, 5.5 ka and 4.5 ka), but the oldest tufa dam and cascade in Tubilla has a U/Th age of 21.2 +/- 1.7ka.

The construction of landscapes in the Cantabrian mid-mountain has a long and complex history that can be interpreted as a legacy which reflect the different intensity of the natural dynamics (climate and / or geomorphological) and those induced by human activities (livestock, agriculture, forestry and especially those derived from the demands of the Navy, forges, or rural communities) with which they have acted over time. Fluctuations in the intensity of the factors can be interpreted by analyzing all the geomorphological facts, plant communities and high-resolution palynological studies