Luís Santos

Polytechnic Institute of Tomar · Landscape management

The Paul do Boquilobo is an important wetland ecosystem classified by Unesco as a MAB Biosphere reserve also awarded Ramsar site status, representing one of the most important habitats for the resident nesting colony of Cattle Egret (Bulbucus ibis). Yet owing to its location, it suffers from human induced impacts which include industrial and domest...

A two sides balance can be drawn from the last 20 years of active intents to change local, regional and global policies concerning water and global environment issues. On one hand, as a consequence of the “sustainable development” model, there is an increasing awareness of the issues in stake, and environment became a core part of any public policy...

Wall tile panels were commonly used in recreational open outdoors spaces of 18th Century noble houses, the nature of their location and the lack of maintenance of such spaces, which lost their purpose during the 20th century, contributed to the natural deterioration of such panels. The need to preserve such an integrated patrimony resulted in the r...

Post pandemic tourism observes a worldwide consumer choice shift from the traditional sun and beach to adventure and nature-based tourism. While interesting for many countries such as Portugal where interior regions observe abandonment and deteriorating economic development, this new economic boost presents unforeseen risk. Both Municipalities hold...

Essential oils (EOs) are acclaimed for their antimicrobial properties, leading to their multiple applications in various fields. In this work, four aromatic plants were used, namely thyme (Thymus mastichina L.), everlasting (Helychrysum stoechas Moench), European pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium L.) and fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill.). Hydrodistillati...

Countries unaccustomed to wildfires are currently experiencing wildfire as a new climate-change reality. Understanding how fire ignition and propagation are correlated with temperature, orography, humidity, wind, and the mixture and age of individual plants must be considered when designing prevention strategies. While wildfire prevention focuses o...

Changing atmospheric conditions, including above all the deepening extreme weather phenomena, are increasing from year to year. This, in consequence, causes an increase in the incidence of low outflows. The study compares low water levels for two catchments: Biała Woda and Czarna Woda, and phosphorus and nitrogen load using the Nutrient Delivery Ra...

From the beginning of the 21st century, following major global and European initiatives such as the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005) and The Economics of Ecosystem and Biodiversity (2010), the idea that ecosystem services could be used as a decision support tool, gained considerable importance in several fields: from economy to public policy,...

The number of forest fires ignitions has decreased worldwide, thus observing increased levels of intensity and destruction, endangering urban areas, and causing material damages and deaths (Portugal-2017). Forest fire hazard mapping supported by the surveillance strategy targeted at very susceptible areas with high losses' potential are the common...

The increasing impacts of climate and land use change directly impact habitat quality and biodiversity. Monitoring the habitats quality can be a valuable tool for the conservation of biodiversity, as it is an indicator of biodiversity. This research work aims to ap-ply the InVEST Habitat Quality model to compare two different cases study from Portu...

Este Manual pretende ser um veículo de informação útil para tornar as populações mais resilientes aos riscos climáticos e aumentar a consciência ambiental coletiva. Tem como objetivo numa primeira leitura, despertar em cada um dos leitores a importância da autoproteção e posteriormente desencadear conversas com familiares e amigos sobre boas prátic...

Main concepts regardings risks and climate change for general public

The understanding of protection initiatives' effects on the delivery of Ecosystem Services (ESs) is of paramount importance to attain sustainable management in Protected Areas (PAs). Protected floodplains provide important ESs to local populations such as water flow regulation and climate regulation through carbon storage. This study investigates t...

The delicate balance between human occupation and conservation policy is a concurrent conflict of historical, economic and cultural nature. Societal reasoning is a clear-cut understanding that the implementation of conservation policy brings loss, while this is a comfortable situation for conservationists, it brings serious consequences to communit...

The Upper Morgado shelter is a karst cavity located in the Nabão river valley whose material culture is in many aspects associated to the dolmen world. This shelter was used and reused in a long diachrony (since Neolithic times until the Early Bronze Age). Exchange and /or Interchange is confirmed through the occurrence of some metal artefacts that...

Floods are among the natural phenomena, the more frequent and deadly having provoked in Portugal, more than 537 dead, between 1966 and 2016. The study of flood risk plays a key role in decision-making of its management. GIS is defined by its ability to manage and perform analysis on spatial information, they are the appropriate tool to process info...

Climate change and sea level variation during the Quaternary shaped the southernmost Santa Catarina's Coastal Plain and its landscape, promoting vegetation changes and different geomorphological features that resulted in the formation of sand barriers, relocation of fluvial channels, lagoons and rivers. In this context, prehistoric occupation of th...

Use of geographic information system predictive mapping to locate areas of high potential for prehistoric archaeological sites is becoming increasingly popular among archaeologists. The environmental variables influencing dispersion of original inhabitants is used to produce GIS layers representing the spatial distribution for the areas studied. Th...

Research on the interface between the lichens and substrates suggests that the weathering of minerals can be accelerated by the growth of some species of lichens. Under the Project RupScience (PTDC/HIS-ARQ/101299/2008) - "Review of operational chains, Archaeometry and Chronology of rock art paintings. A technological approach to material in context...