The article examines how municipal spatial plans regulate the protection and development of green spaces in selected southern European cities, focusing on regulatory content and links to climate challenges. Seven cities - Athens, Montpellier, Sassari, Set & uacute;bal, Bucharest, Bilbao, and Madrid - are compared through analysis of planning documents in terms of definitions, regulations, and integration of green spaces. Findings indicate that varying climate change impacts do not result in different planning approaches. Instead, differences relate to regulatory instruments, integration of strategic objectives, and level of legal detail. The study highlights the key role of spatial plans and challenge of aligning climate goals with tools.

This research aims to evaluate and assess the degree of knowledge of the geographical discipline, check the level of prior learning and and the response of the university students about the future of this discipline based on their disciplinary background. Based on a mixed-type questionnaire completed by 1,260 students enrolled in degrees in Geography, History, Humanities, Primary Education, and a Master's in Secondary Education Teaching from several Spanish universities, the results show that, despite methodological innovations, students still associate the geographical discipline with memorization, the use of textbooks, and physical environmental elements (geofactors). However, they also characterize it as a modern science with social utility, highlighting the need for adopting participatory teaching methods in the classroom to facilitate the acquisition of comprehensive knowledge in a fundamental science for the functioning of societies in the 21st century.

Assuming the profound alteration of biophysical processes on a planetary scale that characterizes the Anthropocene, the management, governance, and public policies surrounding water resources emerge as key issues in responding to the economic, social, and environmental crisis of our time. This paper aims to bring to light the diversity of sociopolitical tensions that manifest within the hydrographic territories of the Tagus and Ebro rivers, seeking to identify those issues that constitute genuine “hot spots” of conflict and impact the sustainable, rigorous, and appropriate management of water resources in Spain. The multiplicity of stakeholders, disputes between regions as well as between regions and the State, and the scarcity of the resource itself create a critical scenario that must be addressed as a priority and with a strategic approach by water authorities.

Esta investigación tiene como objetivos evaluar y valorar el grado de conocimiento de la disciplina geográfica, comprobar el nivel de aprendizaje previo y valorar la respuesta del alumnado universitario acerca del futuro de esta disciplina en función de su formación disciplinar. A partir de la administración de un cuestionario de tipo mixto en el que han participado 1260 estudiantes adscritos a los grados en Geografía, Historia, Humanidades, Educación Primaria, y Master Universitario en Profesor de Educación Secundaria de varias universidades españolas, los resultados muestran que, a pesar de las innovaciones metodológicas, el estudiantado sigue asociando mayoritariamente esta disciplina con la memorización, el uso del libro de texto y con los elementos del medio físico (geofactores). Pero también la caracterizan como una ciencia actual y de utilidad social, de ahí la necesidad de la adopción de métodos de enseñanza participativos en el aula que permitan adquirir conocimientos integrales de una ciencia fundamental para el funcionamiento de las sociedades en el siglo XXI.

The karst plateau of Campos de Hernan Pelea, in the central sector of the Sierra de Segura (Jaen), is characterized by being one of the coldest geographical areas in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, with minimum temperatures as low as-25.4 degrees C in 2021. Despite thermal monitoring during the 2016-2024 period, the lack of previous data makes a more detailed study impossible with the aim of observing the temporal evolution in the study area. Hence the importance of carrying out climate analyses with climate data from the ERA-5 atmospheric reanalysis (1940-2023) and its validation with observational data from recording thermometers with short series, but which are beginning to show consistent climatologies (2016-2024). Among the results obtained, the statistically significant decrease in frost days (especially mixed frosts), the increase in minimum temperatures, and the more anticyclonic tendency of mean atmospheric levels (850 hPa) with an altitudinal increase in geopotential are particularly noteworthy. This means that winter is the only season in which nocturnal atmospheric stability processes increase. Definitely, one of the most notable conclusions drawn from the increased temperature in the study area is the geomorphological implications for the karst (less cold and less snow) and the consequences for aquifer recharge (headwaters of the Segura and Guadalquivir rivers).

Flood risk in Mediterranean basins is usually discussed in relation to heavy rainfall and hydroclimatic extremes. However, the damage caused by floods is not only the result of the physical event itself. It is also shaped by the way societies have occupied flood-prone areas over time. This contribution presents preliminary results for the Segura River Basin District, in south-eastern Spain, where a long history of floods coexists with intense urbanisation, especially since the second half of the twentieth century.The analysis is based on AMARNA, a multidisciplinary database for natural risk analysis that allows flood episodes and municipal flood cases to be reconstructed from historical, documentary, bibliographic and press sources. For the Segura basin, 664 rainfall episodes and 2,042 municipal flood cases have been identified between 1258 and 2025. Each case is classified according to hydrological behaviour, damage to infrastructure and human vulnerability. This makes it possible to compare very different historical periods and to move from a simple list of events to a more systematic interpretation of flood impacts.In order to explore the relationship between floods and territorial exposure, the paper develops a preliminary Flood Impact and Exposure Index for the period 1900–2025. The index combines two types of information. On the one hand, it uses the AMARNA scores related to infrastructure damage and human vulnerability as an indicator of recorded impact. On the other hand, it incorporates exposure through cadastral data on the age and use of buildings, official flood-prone areas for the 10-, 100- and 500-year return periods, and population data where available. The purpose of the index is not to model hydraulic hazard, but to identify municipalities where flood impacts have become more relevant because urban growth has placed more buildings, people and activities in areas historically exposed to flooding.The preliminary results show a complex temporal pattern. Over the full historical series, the number of recorded flood episodes increases. However, since 1900 this trend becomes less clear, while the number of affected municipalities per episode and the accumulated impact scores tend to rise, particularly after 1960. This suggests that recent flood impacts cannot be explained only by changes in rainfall. Long-standing inland hotspots such as Murcia, Orihuela, Lorca, Cartagena and Caravaca remain important, but the geography of recent impacts points to a growing concentration in coastal and peri-coastal municipalities, especially around the Mar Menor and in urbanised areas crossed by ramblas, ephemeral channels and alluvial fans.These findings support the idea that flood risk in the Segura basin has increasingly been amplified by exposure. The expansion of tourist-residential development and other urban uses within flood-prone areas has contributed to a process of coastalisation of risk. The results also raise a broader question for adaptation policies: structural flood defence and channel modification may reduce local hazard, but they can also encourage further occupation of dangerous areas. The proposed historical-GIS approach can therefore help identify exposure tipping points and support spatial planning, disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation in Mediterranean basins.

Sierra de Segura (Jaén), se caracteriza por ser uno de los ámbitos geográficos más fríos del sur de la península ibérica, con registros de temperaturas mínimas de hasta -25.4ºC en 2021. A pesar de la monitorización térmica en el periodo 2016-2024, la falta de datos anteriores imposibilita un estudio más detallado con el objetivo de ver la evolución temporal en el área de estudio. De ahí la importancia de realizar análisis climáticos con los datos pertenecientes al reanálisis atmosférico ERA-5 (1940-2023) y su validación con datos observados por termómetros registradores de series cortas, pero que empiezan a mostrar climatologías consistentes (2016-2024). Entre los resultados obtenidos destacan especialmente la disminución estadísticamente significativa de los días de helada (especialmente las de tipo mixto), el aumento de las temperaturas mínimas y la tendencia más anticiclónica de los niveles medios atmosféricos (850 hPa) con ascenso altitudinal del geopotencial. Esto determina que el invierno sea la única estación en que aumentan los procesos de estabilidad atmosférica nocturna. En definitiva, una de las conclusiones más destacadas con el aumento térmico en el área de estudio son las implicaciones geomorfológicas en el karst (menos frío y menos nieve), y consecuencias en la recarga de acuíferos (cabecera de los ríos Segura y Guadalquivir).

Desertification and droughts are complex processes that integrate physical and human aspects, erroneously presented as coeval in the genesis of landscapes that structurally have no vegetation cover, degraded soils and hardly any humidity. The circumstantial situation (drought sequence) is confused with the geographical structural condition (aridity) as processes that favour the loss of vegetation and soil vitality in a geographic area. In Spain, due to climatic conditions, different types of droughts occur, related to a diverse evolution of regional atmospheric dynamics. The south-east of the Iberian Peninsula is the geographical area most frequently affected by drought periods, due to the confluence of atmospheric factors and its geographic location. In addition, geological, lithological and geomorphological factors also determine a state of natural aridity. However, aridity is not synonymous with desertification. Desertification requires the intervention of human factors and its territorial manifestation can exceed the geographic boundaries of arid areas. The future climate development in many Spanish regions suggests a scenario of lower rainfall and greater irregularity in its genesis, higher actual evaporation and potential evapotranspiration rates and greater water stress; all of which favour the spread of steppe and desert climates and, if human activity does not adapt to this new climate reality, accelerated desertification processes.

There is a broad consensus among the scientific community and international institutions on the need to effectively incorporate social vulnerability into integrative flood risk management. This article proposes a reference model to guide social scientists and risk managers in addressing social vulnerability to floods by articulating its generative, capacitive, and experiential elements. The model's main contribution lies in moving beyond traditional descriptive analyses of sociodemographic vulnerability conditions. It enables a multidimensional approach to vulnerability throughout the disaster cycle, from its root causes to the unequal distribution of impacts. This framework highlights the inherently social nature of disasters and underscores the essential role of social sciences in preparing for the consequences of climate change.

This work carries out a systematic review of the territorial planning documents of two autonomous communities (Autonomous Community of the Basque Country and Valencian Community), which have developed regulations and plans for the adaptation and mitigation of climate change by means of territorial planning. The process used in both cases has been different and the follow-up actions of the determinations within them prove that the continuity of the planning criteria over time is essential for their compliance. After a comparative analysis between both communities, a proposal to incorporate climate change issues and derived effects is presented to be included in the territorial planning at a different level.

La Comunitat Valenciana (España) ha padecido en los últimos cinco años dos eventos importantes de inundación (2019 y 2024), de efectos socioeconómicos y territoriales de gran magnitud. En ambos se registraron valores de lluvia intensa extraordinarios en el espacio geográfico afectado y comportamientos hidrológicos extremos con efectos de inundación catastrófica. El trabajo realiza un estudio comparado de causas, efectos, gestión de la emergencia y propuestas de reconstrucción ocurrida en ambos eventos extremos, con el objetivo de extraer enseñanzas que puedan aplicarse en futuros episodios atmosféricos de alto impacto. Unos eventos extraordinarios que se presumen más frecuentes y de gran intensidad en el contexto actual de cambio climático que cobra especial significación en la región mediterránea.

The Tagus-Segura Transfer (ATS) is the largest hydraulic project in Spain with the aim of correcting the hydrological imbalance in Spain in order to transfer water from basins with surplus water resources to basins with a deficit. The study area chosen is the region of Vega Baja del Segura (Alicante), which belongs to the Segura river basin. The results show structural problems of the ATS, a mapping of real cultivated and uncultivated or abandoned areas, obtaining the maximum cultivable area in the study area, as well as a real calculation of water allocations based on the hectares obtained. Measures are proposed based on adaptation to climate change, on the need to review the preliminary draft of the ATS with data on current irrigated areas, as well as the commitment to efficient demand management, the increase of water resources through adaptive sources and rainwater and, in short, the commitment to hydrological planning that realistically reallocates volumes of water that supply irrigation in the current context of climate change.

The process of climate change that is taking place on our planet, with obvious manifestations in the Mediterranean region, causes alterations in the main climatic elements (temperature, precipitation) and, in particular, favours the more frequent occurrence of extreme atmospheric events, which have a significant socio-economic impact in the affected regions. This paper presents the existing reality of climate change in our country, addresses the difference between meteorological warnings and civil protection alerts, advocates the comprehensive management of disaster risk as a tool for risk reduction and provides some guidelines for adaptation to climate change and its associated atmospheric extremes in the Mediterranean regions. application.

Este trabajo realiza una revisión sistemática de los documentos de planificación territorial de dos Comunidades Autónomas (Comunidad Autónoma del País Vasco y Comunidad Valenciana) que han desarrollado normativa y planes para la adaptación y mitigación del cambio climático mediante la herramienta de la ordenación territorial. El proceso seguido en ambos casos ha sido diferente y las acciones de seguimiento de las determinaciones contenidas en ellos demuestra que la continuidad de criterio de planificación en el tiempo es fundamental para el cumplimiento de las mismas. Tras un análisis comparativo entre ambas comunidades, se presenta una propuesta de incorporación de cuestiones de cambio climático y efectos derivados que debe incorporarse en la planificación territorial a diferente escala.

Floods are the natural hazard with the greatest socio-economic impact in Spain. Historical hydrological data contain abundant information on episodes of river flooding that have affected the entire territory at one time or another, causing, in some cases, catastrophic effects that have led to the evacuation of occupied spaces and the construction of hydraulic infrastructure aimed at protecting populations. In recent times, the promulgation of regulations linked to territorial and urban planning has incorporated precepts aimed at reducing flood risk by limiting uses in flood-prone areas and the development of risk mapping. This paper analyses the increase in the occupation of flood-prone areas that has occurred in recent decades and the effectiveness of territorial regulations for reducing flood risk in our country. The current climate context makes the planning and management of flood episodes more complex. Some proposals for action are presented to solve the occupation of flood-prone areas from territorial planning.

ADAPTAMED es un proyecto de investigación que propone reconstruir y comparar sequías e inundaciones en la vertiente mediterránea española (1750–2025) para evaluar vulnerabilidad social y proponer medidas de adaptación territorial basadas en evidencia. Se articula en dos subproyectos: DRYMED (sequías) y FLOODMED (inundaciones). Combina dendrocronología, series instrumentales, archivos históricos y cartografía/SIG para enlazar peligrosidad climática con exposición y vulnerabilidad cambiantes. Entre los productos esperables destacan un atlas de sequías históricas, mapas históricos de exposición a inundaciones, un catálogo de sequías con impacto y un documento estratégico de adaptación. ADAPTAMED convierte tres siglos de memoria climática en decisiones concretas: mapas, índices y reglas operativas que ayudan a planificar mejor la ordenación del territorio, la gestión del agua y la emergencia. Con datos y herramientas abiertas, ofrece a administraciones y sectores productivos una base rigurosa y replicable para reducir riesgos hoy y sumar resiliencia en las próximas décadas.

The precipitation in the Mediterranean region, characterised by its annual variability and concentration in high-intensity events, is a key factor in territorial planning and the management of runoff in urban areas, particularly on the Spanish Mediterranean coast. This study focuses on the province of Alicante, applying the “daily precipitation concentration index (CI)” in 26 meteorological stations for the period 1981–2020, with the aim of analysing the statistical structure of precipitation on an annual scale. It measures the irregularity and intensity of precipitation according to the concentration of most of the annual total in a few days. Furthermore, it examines the synoptic situations and trajectories of the air masses on days of torrential rain using the HYSPLIT model. This is essential to identify the origin of moist air masses, to understand the meteorological mechanisms that intensify extreme rainfall events, and to identify recurrent patterns that explain their frequency and characteristics. The results reveal extreme CI values of between 0.58 in the interior of the province and 0.71 in the southern pre-coastal area, with a value of 0.68 in the city of Alicante. On average, the CI is 0.65, indicating that 25% of days with more rain have a concentration of around 75% of total precipitation, while 10% of the days represent 45% of the total. With respect to the origin of air masses, the most relevant in the mid-troposphere (500 hPa) are those from the north of Africa, particularly during the final periods of their trajectory, with flows from the east on the surface.