Observatorio Medioambiental

Water management in Spain: foundations, contradictions, and challenges within the framework of development models, from the tourism perspective

María Sotelo Pérez — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This article examines the current state of water governance in Spain from a critical, multidisciplinary, and structural perspective. Its objective is to analyse the development models that have historically guided water planning, identify the contradictions that emerge from their practical application, and propose reforms that will allow us to move toward a more just, efficient, and sustainable paradigm. Starting from a comprehensive review of the physical, territorial, and climatic foundations that shape the availability of water resources in Spain, this paper examines the legal and institutional evolution of water policies, from the Water Law of 1866 to the incorporation of the Water Framework Directive into the national regulatory framework. This paper analyses the multilevel management that characterizes the Spanish system, characterized by the fragmentation of powers, the coexistence of divergent models, and the growing influence of the European Union. It also addresses the structural contradictions between official discourse and institutional practices, between the logic of supply and the need for demand-based management, and between economic interests and the principles of sustainability. Underscoring the importance of creating and implementing sustainability indicators, it allows us to interpret water management as a multidimensional phenomenon, facilitating the integration of water management into our country's territorial policies.

Air Quality Visualization in Valencia: An Interactive Tool for Citize

Fri, 12 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Air quality is a key indicator of environmental health, and its effective communication is essential to support informed decision-making. In Valencia, although official air pollution data are openly available, their complexity hinders public understanding. This paper presents a web application that integrates real-time and historical information from eleven monitoring stations, enabling interactive visualization of the main pollutants (NO₂, PM₁₀, PM₂.₅, O₃, SO₂) together with reference values from Spanish legislation and WHO guidelines. The tool combines maps, temporal charts, and heatmaps to facilitate trend analysis, comparison with regulatory thresholds, and identification of critical periods. Results reveal a progressive decline in NO₂ and PM₁₀ levels between 2014 and 2023, as well as seasonal patterns linked to ozone. The proposed platform helps democratize access to environmental information, raise public awareness, and provides a replicable resource for other cities seeking to make air-quality data more accessible to citizens

Smoking: A Public Health Problem That Contributes To The Climate Emergency

Diana Carolina Correa Molina — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Smoking and vaping pose a challenge not only to public health but also to the environment. This study analyzes the impact of third- and fourth-hand tobacco use, highlighting the need to integrate educational strategies and stricter environmental policies to reduce its incidence and mitigate its effects on vulnerable ecosystems. The purpose of this research is to demonstrate how smoking and vaping contribute to the climate emergency and how public health policies can be integrated with environmental strategies for greater effectiveness. A hypothetical-deductive approach was used, evaluating the environmental impact of smoking in various contexts. Data on pollution generated by tobacco waste were analyzed, and regulatory and educational strategies that could mitigate this problem were examined. Three smoking cessation tests were also analyzed to assess whether they include the environmental component in their questions, such as air pollution, where tobacco smoke generates particulate matter that affects air quality and increases the risk of respiratory diseases; cigarette butt waste, where a single butt can contaminate up to 1,000 liters of water, releasing nicotine and heavy metals; the impact on flora and fauna, where negative effects were identified in ecosystems where cigarette waste accumulates; and the influence of digital marketing, which, through vaping advertising, has reinforced a false perception of safety in consumption, promoting a new generation of smokers. The findings demonstrate the absence of the environmental factor in the smoking cessation instruments, and therefore, an adaptation to one of the instruments is proposed. Thus, this research concludes that strict environmental regulations are needed, including prohibiting the disposal of cigarette butts in public spaces, limiting advertising of tobacco and vaping products, especially on social media, incorporating environmental education into school curricula to strengthen the link between public health and ecological protection, and implementing awareness campaigns that highlight the connection between smoking and the climate crisis. All of this, through an adaptation of the Glover-Nilson Test, aligned with Prochaska and DiClemente's transtheoretical model, would facilitate smoking cessation from an environmental perspective. The research concludes that education and the regulation of public spaces can strengthen awareness and action against smoking, promoting changes in the social perception of tobacco use and nicotine delivery devices.

ENG Immigrant entrepreneurs in Madrid: resilience and sustainability strategies

Fri, 12 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Following the global health crisis caused by the coronavirus, which halted economic activities in general and particularly affected the businesses of immigrant entrepreneurs, a new phase has begun in which so-called 'ethnic' businesses and services are having to adopt new resilience and sustainability strategies in the face of current challenges for small immigrant-run enterprises. Therefore, our objective is to analyze immigrant businesses located on a number of commercial streets in Madrid that were previously studied at the beginning of the 2008 economic crisis. These businesses were revisited after the economic crisis in 2015 and are now being analyzed again to observe their evolution and possible changes, following the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. The methodology is comparative, applying both quantitative and qualitative techniques, the latter based on direct and participant observation”. This analysis allows us to conclude that the resilience and sustainability strategies of immigrant entrepreneurs are similar, with no dependence detected between certain changes and the immigrant's origin or gender. We only found an association between the immigrant entrepreneur's origin and the receipt of public aid, between origin and the evolution of demand in recent years, and between origin and gender with the use of ecological transport.

Analysis and Planning of Salamanca and its surroundings

Pablo Martínez Martín, María Jesús González González — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This Project focuses on the analysis and territorial planning of Salamanca and the municipalities that comprise its surrounding area. On the one hand, it studies the evolution of the territory throughout history, with a special focus on the historic center and the factors that have contributed to the urban dynamism and expansion that have shaped the city as we know it today. On the other hand, it examines the processes of suburbanization and peri-urban expansion, and the challenges of addressing sustainable planning. Future strategies are projected to strengthen integration between Salamanca and its surrounding area, between urban and rural areas, and a commitment to a more compact and sustainable city model that balances urban development with the conservation of natural and cultural heritage.

The process of globalization in China: The profound impact of economic development on the environment, human rights, and the economy

Yi Ren — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This study analyzes the main challenges of China's development in the context of globalization, with emphasis on the environment, economic structure and social equity. Although China has become a global manufacturing center through industrialization and foreign trade, this model has generated serious environmental impacts and growing inequalities. Through a mixed methodology - literature review, analysis of official data and case studies - ecological costs and patterns of resource use in global chains are examined.

The Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric plant (Ecuador): A problematic anthropogenic action

Fri, 12 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The article addresses the hypothesis that the Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric power plant (1500 MW) is not the victim, but rather the main cause of the accelerated regressive erosion crisis in the Coca River following the collapse of the San Rafael waterfall (2020). Using a strategic methodology of documentary evaluation of reports from the Comptroller General of the Republic (CGE) and engineering records, the study demonstrates that the project largely ignored the precautionary principle and the principle of environmental legality (PLGA). The results reveal systemic failures: the dam created a condition of “hungry water” by retaining sediments, and thousands of fissures and uneven compliance with mitigation measures were documented. This technical dysfunction and dysfunctional governance externalized the risk, resulting in an asymmetric socioeconomic crisis in the canton of El Chaco, where erosion destroyed a significant part of the agricultural production base and the tourism sector, undermining territorial resilience.

Fire and territory in Navarre: an interdisciplinary perspective from Geography, History and Customary Law

Ignacio Sotelo Pérez, María Sotelo Pérez — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The present research proposes an interdisciplinary reading of fire in Navarre, addressing its role in the ecological configuration of the territory, its historical use as an agricultural and cultural tool, its transformation into a catastrophic risk, and its legal regulation since the Middle Ages. Through the analysis of documentary sources such as charters, municipal ordinances, notarial records, and regional legislation, the evolution of the regulatory framework governing the use of fire in the Navarrese mountains is reconstructed. The study reveals how Navarrese historical law, deeply rooted in communal practices and customary customs, has been key to the management of fire as an ecological and social element. It is concluded that understanding fire in Navarre requires an approach that combines ecology, history, and law, and that traditional knowledge can offer keys to addressing the contemporary challenges of forest fires. This study has aimed to contribute to this understanding by offering a profound, well-documented, and original analysis of fire as a legal concept, a territorial practice, and a cultural expression. The Navarrese experience demonstrates that it is possible to regulate fire from a community-based, territorial, and traditional perspective, and that law can be a tool for balance, adaptation, and transformation. In a world increasingly threatened by climate change, regulatory homogenization, and biodiversity loss, the Navarrese model offers a valuable alternative and deserves to be studied, protected, and replicated.

The infrastructure of environmental awareness: a boost to sustainable development

Laura Salas Martín — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This article approaches the environmental issue from an interdisciplinary perspective, focusing on how collective environmental awareness is developed and operates within the frameworks of environmental governance. It examines the process of institutionalizing environmental issues into social, economic, and political structures, becoming a distinct normative sector. The research highlights the need for a multilevel, multiscalar framework to coordinate global and local efforts, with an emphasis on the role of the United Nations, the Paris Agreement, the private sector, and quality infrastructure in fostering sustainable development. The conclusion asserts that environmental governance, through its actors and legal devices, effectively translates and materializes sustainable development principles into tangible, operational practices that go beyond traditional legal frameworks.

Urban bioindication: an approach to epiphytic lichens in the city of Madrid

Eduardo Sánchez de la Iglesia — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This article analyzes the presence of epiphytic lichens in the urban fabric of Madrid in relation to the specific location of each of the stations that make up the Madrid City Council's Air Quality Monitoring and Control Network. With this as a starting point, a statistical analysis of the pollution data provided by the stations is established to verify the differences between the various urban enclaves. This gives rise to fieldwork that provides qualitative information on the existence of lichen specimens as an integral part of the environmental context in one of the most representative cities on the international scene, where the preservation of the urban environment continues to be a subject of perpetual debate. In this case, research on epiphytic lichens was carried out based on the analysis of specimens of the tree species Ulmus Pumila, which is widely distributed in the Madrid metropolitan area, conducting a homogeneous study on the factors that influence the presence of lichens in urban contexts. This research also provides a potential tool linked to environmental education for citizens, which can be used in the development of environmental education projects.

Anomie in its scientific application in the field of the environment and geographical spaces

Ignacio Sotelo Pérez, José Antonio Sotelo Navalpotro — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This article examines the phenomenon of legal anomie as it applies to environmental protection and the regulation of geographic spaces. Anomie is understood here not merely as the absence of norms, but as a structural dysfunction marked by normative contradictions, institutional fragmentation, and limited enforceability of environmental rights. These conditions undermine legal certainty and hinder the effective safeguarding of collective ecological goods. The study proposes a systematic reading of the legal framework to overcome internal inconsistencies through integrative interpretation, aligned with constitutional principles and oriented toward sustainability and territorial equity. Drawing on an interdisciplinary approach, the article frames anomie as a complex legal and epistemological challenge that demands coordinated responses across legal, political, and spatial domains.

Global Warming and Climate Change focused on Social Conflicts and the Environment

Yongyi Zhan — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This study analyzes the relationship between climate change and socio-environmental conflicts from both theoretical and practical perspectives. It examines how global warming leads to resource scarcity, water stress, and land loss, particularly affecting regions such as Africa and South America. It also explores how these changes intensify inequalities, trigger conflicts, and worsen issues such as migration, unemployment, and health. Through concrete case studies, the work investigates the economic, social, and health impacts of climate change.