IHCantabria launches a course on tools to improve integrated landscape management taking into account the importance of biodiversity and ecosystem services
This course promotes the protection of biodiversity and the implementation of nature-based solutions that facilitate adaptation to climate change. The registration period is still open and is free of charge, as well as the certificate of approval
For more than six years, the Environmental Hydraulics Institute of the Universidad de Cantabria (IHCantabria) led the development of the European ALICE project, which was aimed at finding nature-based solutions (SbN) to contribute to the design of multifunctional and resilient landscapes, capable of adapting to global change. One of the results was the design of an online course that brings together the knowledge developed in this project. The first edition of this course will start this week and the registration period is still open, through its website.
The objective of this course is “to bring students closer to integrated watershed and landscape management in order to adapt to global change,” says José Barquín, head of the Continental Ecosystems Group at IHCantabria, principal investigator of the ALICE project and coordinator of the course.
This course is offered in English under the following title: “Towards integrated landscape management: Developing tools for adapting to change”. It is structured in six modules that compile many of the conceptual and methodological developments applied during the ALICE project.
One of the professors and coordinator of this course, Alberto Vélez Martín, explains the characteristics of the six modules: “The first module will address the importance of the participatory process for integrated landscape management; the second, is focused on the main drivers of change; the third, will show the databases and modeling approaches; the fourth, will deal with biodiversity patterns and the factors that control it; the fifth module will deal with the characterization and modeling of ecosystem functions and services, while the sixth module will provide a multi-criteria perspective for the design and implementation of Blue and Green Infrastructure Networks (BGINs)”.
It should be recalled that the ALICE project aimed to develop tools for the design and implementation of BGINs to protect biodiversity by reducing the impact of human activities and improving adaptation to climate change. Its development required multisectoral participation, through an innovative participatory process that fostered local knowledge and the involvement of local actors, such as private and public institutions, several NGOs and civil society. This project succeeded in bridging the gap between science and society, around the study of the evolution of the Atlantic landscape in the European Atlantic arc, showed the relevance of aspects related to hydrological regulation or water quality, and their relationship with changes in the landscape due to agricultural and livestock activities, abandonment of the territory or the occurrence of fires.
As in ALICE, the course resulting from this project proposes to develop an integrated approach that considers the relationships between human activities (social and economic aspects), the provision of ecosystem services and coastal and terrestrial biodiversity. The following institutions are participating in its execution, with their respective number of teachers: University of Cantabria / Fundación Instituto de Hidráulica Ambiental de Cantabria (13 teachers); Université de Bretagne Occidentale (2 teachers); University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro (4 teachers); Université de Rennes (1 teacher); Littoral, environnement, télédétection et géomatique – Rennes Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (1 teacher); Basque Centre for Climate Change (1 teacher).
Upon completion of this course, students will acquire skills to identify the knowledge and tools needed to perform BGIN design and SbN implementation, understand ecosystem functions and modeling methods, define biodiversity management strategies through landscape integrative approaches, promote participatory processes to address environmental problems, and understand and disseminate benefits of SbN and BGINs in the context of global change. The registration period for this course is still open and it is free of charge, as is the certificate that will be obtained at the end of the course, as proof of having completed it.
More information on the characteristics of this course and on the registration process, through this link: https://alice.ihcantabria.com/mooc-information/