Sustainable Forest Ecology and Management

Monitoring biodiversity and landscapes, adaptive forest management in the face of climate change, eco-hydrological change indicators and improving re-population techniques have been at the heart of ECOGESFOR's activities. They have generated publications in prestigious scientific journals, software applications and the transfer of results via workshops, courses and scientific meetings. By way of example of these applications, we can cite the following:

· Designing the software application for analysing ecological connectivity ¿Conefor¿ (www.conefor.org ) where it can be downloaded and more information is available.

· As the result of a research project, the group launched a web site ¿SISPARES¿ which gives information about the Spanish Rural Landscapes Monitoring System.

· We collaborate with the FERTIBERIA university-business chair in researching all matters relating to fertilisers that respect the environment and contribute to sustainable, competitive agricultural development.

· We have started up a service for plant sample analysis based on Near Infra-red Spectroscopy (NIRS) technology.

· We have a range of computer software that can be downloaded from our web site: IAHRIS (for measuring Hydrological Change Indices in Rovers), Aqualis. (Application on GIS ArcView to calculate maximum daily rainfall in water catchment areas), MAXIN (Calculation of the maximum intensity for a specific duration and return period on the Spanish peninsular) and SIG-FOREST (GIS of Forestry species in Spain. GIS viewer where information about the forestry species included in Royal Decree 289/2003 and Directive EC-1999-105 can be seen).