3rd March (14:30 to 18:30 [1 hour more in ESP & IT])

Presentation, discussion of aims, contents, organisation, working groups and project themes


Zoom Link: https://videoconf-colibri.zoom.us/j/97709227264


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24th March (14:30 to 18:00  [1 hour more in ESP & IT])

*video record on permission

Teaching module

International Seminar on Landscape Transformations, Abandonment and Resilience in Peripheral Rural Areas in Southern Europe


Chair: João Sarmento, UM, Portugal



16:00-16:30 Coffee Break


Chair: José Luís Serrano Montes, UGR, Spain


Zoom link: https://videoconf-colibri.zoom.us/j/98743075847 


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7th April (14:30 to 18:30  [1 hour more in ESP & IT])

·   Preliminary presentation of the group projects. Discussion


Google meet link: https://meet.google.com/osu-nnpe-wvm

 

5 - 9 May – Face-to-face sessions –  Visit to the University of Minho, Guimarães, Portugal

 

17 May – deadline for project completion (to be send by email)



Abstracts for the 24th March International Seminar


"Renewable Energy and the Transformation of Rural Landscapes: From Peripheral Spaces to Energy Frontiers"

Marina Frolova, Geography Department, University of Granada, Spain

 

The expansion of renewable energy infrastructures across peripheral rural areas in Southern Europe is reshaping landscape dynamics, reinforcing existing spatial inequalities, and raising critical questions about the long-term sustainability of these transformations.

While renewable energy projects are often framed as drivers of economic revitalization and sustainability, their large-scale deployment frequently leads to land-use conflicts, the displacement of traditional agricultural activities, and even demographic decline. Rather than fostering rural resilience, these developments can contribute to landscape abandonment, as energy infrastructures take precedence over local livelihoods and cultural landscapes. Moreover, the shift from agricultural or pastoral territories to energy production zones represents a deeper transformation—from rural landscapes to industrialized spaces—challenging the reversibility of these interventions. This presentation draws on key insights from the broader debate on the hidden dimensions of the energy transition, critically examining how the deployment of renewable energy systems affects rural territories, their socio-ecological functions, and the perception of landscape permanence. It will also reflect on the need for more integrated territorial planning approaches to mitigate the risks of marginalization and ensure that the energy transition does not become another driver of rural decline.

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"The Transboundary Biosphere Reserve Gerês/Xurés: Towards an European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation for a Low-Density Remote Rural Area?"

Paül Valerià, Geography Department, University of Santiago de Campostela, Spain


At the border between Galicia and Portugal, where three European Groupings of Territorial Cooperation (EGTCs) currently operate, the process to establish a fourth one is underway since late 2022: Raia Seca Gerês/Xurés. This proposed new cross-border cooperation structure will cover a rural area rich in natural and cultural heritage but suffering noticeable ageing, depopulation and land abandonment. The defined area for the forthcoming EGTC mostly matches the already existing Gerês/Xurés Transboundary Biosphere Reserve (TBBR) designated in 2009, mostly for tourism purposes. The future EGTC is arguably seen as a mechanism to channel transboundary cooperation and redefine the role of the already designated TBBR, moving beyond isolated actions funded by Interreg and embracing a more integrated territorial approach devoted to holistic rural development.

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"Living in the margins. A public engagement project from a Dolomite municipality at risk of abandonment"

Sabrina Meneghello, University IUAV of Venice, Italy


Cibiana di Cadore is a small Dolomites municipality in the north-east of the Veneto Region. Situated at 1000 metres above sea level, in the Boite Valley between Belluno and Cortina, it enjoys the attractiveness of the context and the originality of the murals that decorate its historic buildings. Despite the various factors of tourist attractiveness, the village is at risk of depopulation – it counts 300 inhabitants- and progressive marginalisation. The contribution illustrates the preliminary result of a research project started at the beginning of 2024 in this mountain context. Financed by a specific programme of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan for marginal contexts aimed at facing territorial and generational gaps through the implementation of culture and tourism projects, the research has been including a variety of community engagement actions to assess new ways of attracting new residents and support productive activities. Exploring spaces of abandonment, everyday life and re-appropriation through a mix of methods and tools, the work reflects on what it means to inhabit marginal mountain contexts, highlighting the effects of climate change and global pressures that erode economic diversification and cancel precious elements of the heritage that communities try jealously to guard.


Short Bio of guest-speakers


Bodo Freund, Humboldt Universität Berlin, Germany


Bodo Freund was born in Frankfurt am Main (1941). He studied Geography, Political Sciences, Philosophy, Romance Languages and Literatures, in the Universities of Frankfurt and Tübingen. In 1965 he was granted a four months scholarship by the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, for research in Portuguese libraries and archives and for field-work in the Barroso region. In 1968 he completed a Doctorate in Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main. In that same year he was an Assistant at the Department of Geography, University of Frankfurt, and later, in 1973, an Assistant professor in the same University. In 1974-75 he replaced Orlando Ribeiro at the Centro de Estudos Geográficos, Universidade de Lisboa, teaching Nine months in Lisbon, and in Portuguese. In 1982-91 he was a consultant for the Volkswagen Foundation concerning research grants on “Southern enlargement of the European Community”. In 1983, 1985, 1986, 1988 and 1990, he was involved in the organisation of international meetings in social sciences focused on Spain and Portugal. He got his habilitation in 1984, at the Philipps-Universität Marburg, on Peri-urban agriculture in the Frankfurt Metropolitan Area. In 1993 he became full professor in Human Geography, at the Humboldt-Universität, Berlin. Between 1999 and 2003 he was an evaluator of research projects in Geography, in the Science and Technology Ministry in Portugal. Over time, his research changed from rural to urban and social geography, international migrations, expatriates and historical geography. He has had an incessant interest in Mediterranean countries and especially in Portugal. He’s an Emeritus Professor since 2006, and continued teaching until 2008.



Marina Frolova, Geography Department, University of Granada, Spain

 

A Professor at the University of Granada, specializing in landscape studies, regional planning, and the socio-environmental dynamics of renewable energy transitions. She has authored over 50 articles in leading journals and contributed to key works such as Renewable Energies and European Landscapes: Lessons from Southern European Cases (Springer, 2015) and Les paysages du Caucase. Invention d’une montagne (CTHS, 2006). Her research focuses on the intersections between landscape values, public perceptions, and the deployment of renewable energy infrastructures. She has led several multidisciplinary research projects as a principal investigator, particularly exploring the territorial and societal implications of energy transitions. Her work has gained international recognition, positioning her as a leading scholar in the field of landscape and environmental geography.


Sabrina Meneghello, IUAV University of Venice, Italy

A post-doc fellow at the University IUAV of Venice. She has been working since 2024 on a two-year research project in the Cadore Dolomite area in the north of the province of Belluno, financed by funds from the National Recovery and Reliance Programme (PNRR) dedicated to the topic of cultural and social regeneration of small municipalities with less than 5,000 inhabitants. The objective is the identification and assessment of sustainable cultural and tourism policies favouring a diversification of the economic base at municipal level and able to attract new residents against depopulation.

Since 2023 she is also teaching as a contract professor at Ca' Foscari University “Geography of Tourist Destinations” and “Territorial Development and Tourism Sustainability” and at the University of Padua “Geography of the Environment and Landscape”. She defended her doctoral thesis in Geographic Studies at the University of Padua in 2023. Her PhD research focuses on the nexus tourism-landscape. She has a degree in Philosophy from the same university and a Master’s degree in Tourism Economics and Management from the Ca' Foscari University of Venice.

She is a tourism research fellow with more than 20 years of experience. From 2000 to 2022 she worked at CISET, the International Center for Studies on Tourism Economy, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice managing research and teaching projects at European, national and local level. Her research interests focus on sustainable tourism, landscape, cultural heritage, tourism impacts and community involvement. Sabrina is interested in both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. She recently published in the journals Land and Tourism Geographies. She has previously published in various international and national journals and books.


Valerià Paül, University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain


Valerià Paül is Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Santiago de Compostela. In 2006, he received his PhD in Geography from the University of Barcelona. He has participated in several research projects and is the author of numerous scientific publications. His research is focused on open spaces, protected areas and endogenous/local development; landscapes; mountains; rural and food studies; peri-urban areas; political and cultural geography, including the challenging field of border studies; and tourism, namely nature and/or rural tourisms.