Maria Helena GuimarãesUniversidade de Évora | uevora · MED - Mediterranean Institute for Agriculture, Environment and Development
Maria Helena Guimarães
PhD in sustainable natural resource management
Starting the application of a result-based model for the Montado in Portugal under Pillar II of the CAP
About
66
Publications
23,423
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
766
Citations
Citations since 2017
Introduction
I am a transdisciplinary (TD) researcher that facilitates coproduction of knowledge for the definition of actions that transform social-ecological systems. My research is double folded into research in the specific theme (e.g. biodiversity loss, climate change, sustainability) and research on TD theory building. I combine theory and practice to develop transformative solutions and uncover vital knowledge through facilitation with a specific focus on sustainability at a local and global scale.
Additional affiliations
January 2017 - present
ISCED Huambo
Position
- Professor
Description
- Responsible for the module of Decision Support Systems and Territorial Analysis in Mature Conservation of the master program
December 2014 - December 2017
March 2014 - November 2014
Position
- PostDoc Position
Description
- Policy guidelines for the regeneration of shrinking cities
Education
January 2009 - April 2013
Publications
Publications (66)
Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are a tool to safeguard marine natural systems, yet their effectiveness depends on how well they are integrated into the existing socioeconomic context. Stakeholder engagement in MPA design can contribute to increasing integration. This study focuses on the co-design of an MPA between researchers, public administration...
TERTÚLIAS DO MONTADO 2016-2019
Avaliação e Síntese
OBJECTIVOS:
• Apresentar os resultados de um questionário de avaliação respondido em 2019 por 100 participantes das Tertúlias.
• Resumir a atividade das Tertúlias do Montado desde de 2016 até 2019.
As shown by the Green Deal's ambition, the European Commission is progressively pushing for an environmental shift and climate action in Europe. For the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), this involves a stronger focus on greening policy objectives. For agri-environmental schemes, this entails changes toward performance-based payments, partially rep...
Water governance is a major challenge in the Mediterranean context. Any action to drive water governance towards sustainability needs to be grounded in a holistic understanding of such challenges. Therefore, a first step towards the improvement of water governance is a grounded understanding of what is at stake, who are the actors involved, and how...
Little is known about citizens’ judgment of nature conservation actions financed by public funds. The present work contributes to this topic with empirical evidence coming from a Choice Modeling (CM) study designed in an innovative mode. Using the participatory budget format, a CM exercise elicited respondents’ choice between the allocation of publ...
The goal of the book is to fill the gap in the knowledge on
silvo-pastoral systems and their changing trends, by adding
the human dimension, with enough detail to draw
inferences about the new governance solutions that are
needed to address the multiple challenges faced by
silvo-pastoral systems. This text will be highly valuable to
university and...
Concept diversity is inherent to silvopastoral system due to their historical and evolutionary dimensions. It's mathematical in the sense that we can have different combinations of its components including. Narrowing the look over this diversity to the case of montado and dehesa we display the variance of the meaning of this concept's definition. T...
Due to the multifunctionality of silvopastoral systems several interests co-exist in the same space. Actors' coordination can allow the development of collective strategies and actions towards sustainability and resilience of these systems. How can such coordination be implemented? We try to reply to this question by discussing two initiatives that...
Birdwatching is one of the fastest growing sectors of ecotourism. Managing this nature-based activity requires understanding birdwatchers’ attitudes and behaviour towards the natural environment. This paper proposes assessing these attitudes and the link to behavioural intentions by combining the New Environmental Paradigm (NEP) with a criterion-ba...
Highlights
Land system dynamics from seven Mediterranean case studies are discussed.
Despite the diversity of contexts captured, transversal patterns were found.
Data shows disconnection between expected and desired futures.
Territorial actors can identify opportunities and actions towards desired futures.
Embedding actors within dynamics enab...
The quality of life (QoL) in cities has increasingly been used as a symbol of urban success. Studies addressing this issue tend to focus, however, on large cities and/or on cities from different countries. By using a set of data from a single country, comprehending cities with different population sizes and densities, observations for 11 performanc...
Understanding land system dynamics is fundamental for policy-making from local to global scale. Land system is a combination of land use, land management and territorial practices. To attain such complete information about landscape structures is a challenging task. Aiming to deepen knowledge on land systems, we applied a methodology meant to achie...
Mediterranean land systems are amongst the most susceptible to global change, in part due to the region's vulnerability to climate change and misfit within a high production demanding political and societal setting. The impact of global drivers at a local scale (i.e., the possible trajectories of change of a territory) are context-dependent, and to...
Facilitation is increasingly becoming recognized as necessary, especially in processes of co-produced TD research, as a means of integrating process design and methods to generate research outputs more reflective of our complex reality. There is no ideal or universal method for cross-fertilizing different worlds of knowing. Specific methods develop...
To combine efficient livestock farming with environmental conservation is nowadays an important societal challenge in face of the increased generalised loss of biodiversity. The extensive grazing systems frequently associate with High Nature Value farming areas are central to biodiversity management, particularly in Europe. In order to reverse this...
We witness a persistent tension between established ways of knowledge production through disciplines, and the urgent need to widen and change, both the production of knowledge and its organization, not least, in order to be able to understand and address the future and its challenges. Witnessing a growing call for inter- and transdisciplinarity (IT...
This study compares the Quality of Life (QoL) of cities that lost population with that of cities that gained population. A unique dataset composed of observations for 11 dimensions of QoL for all mainland Portuguese cities is used. By employing a non-parametric approach (Data Envelopment Analysis), and by using a Malmquist-type index, this study id...
Inter- and transdisciplinarity are increasingly relevant concepts and research practices within academia. Although there is a consensus about the need to apply these practices, there is no agreement over definitions. Building on the outcomes of the first year of the COST Action TD1408 “Interdisciplinarity in research programming and funding cycles”...
In theory, if a new idea offers a good solution for a current problem and is properly widespread, then there is an ongoing brokering process, and, at a certain moment in time, an innovation is no longer considered as such. In the present study, we examine the case of the Montado, an agro-silvo-pastoral system in southern Portugal, to reflect on whe...
To think about new strategies that safeguard both biodiversity and its contributions to human well-being we organised the workshop "Litoral Norte Natural Park: what futures?" in Esposende, on 17 and 18 January 2019. The objectives of the workshop were the following: 1) to create ideal visions for the next 10 years of Litoral Norte MPA; 2) to propos...
![Figure 1. Map of the Azores. From: Live Azores website [20].](publication/327274885/figure/fig1/AS:664763667320832@1535503417800/Map-of-the-Azores-From-Live-Azores-website-20_Q320.jpg)
The European Union’s (EU) remote rural areas undergo unique organizational challenges to counteract geopolitical, economic, and environmental constraints and engage in a competitive global food market. A one size fits all recipe to mend specific issues has also proven inefficient and led policy-makers to acknowledge the importance of implementing s...
Fishers’ participation in the fishery management decision-making process is generally low, particularly in smallscale
fisheries (SSF). Within the overarching goal of improving fisheries governance, fishers’ participation is
crucial. Yet, how can fishers participate in the decision-making processes which affect their actions, and to what
extent do f...
The aspiration to establish an effective dialogue between science and society has inspired some ground breaking examples of transdisciplinarity (TD). The core idea of TD is that different academic disciplines work jointly with practitioners to solve common problems. The first step of TD implies a contextualization that requires holistic and systemi...
Creating liveable cities is a policy priority, especially for cities that are experiencing population loss. A decline in the number of inhabitants is commonly associated with low levels of residential satisfaction. However, such a supposition does not often find empirical support in shrinking cities. In the present study, we identify variables that...
In the Algarve the potential for birdwatching tourism is widely
recognized, especially in the Ria Formosa Natural Park (RFNP). This study
aims to describe birdwatchers’ profile in the RFNP. For this purpose, a
survey was applied. The results show that the most frequent nationalities
of birdwatchers are: British (39%), Dutch (17%) and Portuguese (17...
This volume addresses new innovations in quality of life and well-being from the perspectives of the individual, society and community. It aggregates the perspectives, research questions, methods and results that consider how quality of life is influenced in our modern society. Chapters in this volume present theoretical and practical examples on d...
The number of cities experiencing population decline has been increasing worldwide. Despite the existence of theoretical propositions of shrinkage as an opportunity to increase levels of residential satisfaction, the issue has not been addressed empirically. This paper contributes to fill this gap by assessing, through survey, the residential satis...
This article describes how a research institute went about reviewing the relationship between its members and external research partners in engaging in collaborative research. A systematization of experiences (SE) process was implemented to enable such review and draw implications for the institute’s strategy regarding research into the sustainabil...
Despite the worldwide trend of urbanisation, data reveal that some cities are growing whereas others are losing inhabitants. To assess such dynamics in Portuguese cities, demographic, employment, housing, and climate variables were analysed as possible drivers of population change for the period 1991–2011. Panel data models show that higher shares...
International Meeting on Marine Research 2016
The attractiveness of cities as places to live determines population movements into or out of them. Understanding the appealing features is fundamental to local governments, particularly for
cities facing population decline. Pull and push attributes can include economic aspects, the availability of amenities and psychological constructs, initiating...
Cities develop according to different patterns, undergoing population growth during some periods and decline (shrinkage) during others. Theories attempting to understand these behaviours include: 1) shrinkage is a natural process in the life cycle of a city, alternating with periods of growth, or 2) shrinkage is an extreme event that places cities...
Cities facing a continued and prolonged process of population decline require innovative urban regeneration policies complementary to growth-oriented policies. Losing inhabitants involves a decrease in economic activity and social capital. Therefore citizens’ participation in defining policies to cope with population decline is being increasingly a...
It may seem paradoxical that in a period of rapid urban growth, some cities are shrinking; however, they are two sides of the same coin of urban change. This article identifies cities that are shrinking in Portugal. Looking at the demographic evolution from the 1991 until 2011 we identified 17 cities that are losing inhabitants, 9 of them persisten...
Na era do crescimento urbano pode parecer paradoxal que algumas cidades estejam em declínio populacional. Contudo, ambos os fenómenos são dois lados da mesma moeda. Este artigo identifica o declínio populacional nas cidades em Portugal. Observando a evolução demográfica de 1991 a 2011 verificou-se que 17 cidades estão a perder população: 9 persiste...
Transdisciplinarity is a demanding paradigm, considered by many in the literature as the way to move forward in terms of science and policy integration. In this paper we present the example of a tailored transdisciplinary (TD) process to tackle a key topic of European policy – the future of agriculture at the regional level. This phased process was...
O tema da redução de habitantes a viver nas cidades (“shrinking cities”) não é novo, e foi abordado inicialmente como integrando o ciclo de vida das cidades, em que períodos de crescimento demográfico são alternados com períodos de declínio demográfico. No entanto, a realidade na Europa tem vindo a questionar esta forma de analisar o tema, à medida...
Cidades que registam períodos de declínio populacional têm vindo gradualmente a afetar
um número crescente de cidades, de diversas dimensões e localizadas igualmente em um
número crescente de regiões e países: desde os Estados Unidos, à Austrália e ao Japão e a
uma multiplicidade de países europeus. A perda de habitantes em cidades tem sido con
-
s...
Population decline in cities (‘shrinking cities’) is an increasing international phenomenon.
The purpose of this study was to determine citizens’ policy preferences for
tackling shrinkage and to ascertain whether different causes of shrinkage lead to different
preferences, on the basis of which we identify viable urban regeneration strategies
to im...
A Choice Modeling (CM) study was chosen to assess specific management actions related to bird-watching on the Portuguese island of Terceira in the Azores. The usual willingness-to-pay measure was replaced by the willingness-to-stay (WTS) longer on the island for bird-watching, given changes in the site attributes. Results of the valuation study wer...
The aim of this book is to improve the understanding of transition processes in European agriculture. It focuses on 'emerging transitions' - how new organizational forms and technologies change, and are changed by, mainstream actors and practices in the agricultural sector. This is achieved through an integration of recent academic theory on transi...
This paper reports findings derived from a study of birdwatchers in the Azores. The subject was birdwatchers' preferences for given management actions designed to improve the attractiveness of bird watching sites. In the absence of official statistics on this market segment, use was made of a mixed-mode survey incorporating both on-site and off-sit...
Na era do crescimento urbano pode parecer paradoxal que algumas cidades estejam em declínio populacional. Contudo, ambos os fenómenos são dois lados da mesma moeda. Este artigo identifica o declínio populacional nas cidades em Portugal. Observando a evolução demográfica de 1991 a 2011 Verificou-Se que 17 cidades estão a perder população: 9 persiste...
The definition of management actions in natural resource management requires the integration of all types of knowledge involved. An appropriate approach for such a challenge is the ideal of transdisciplinarity. A transdisciplinary process can be considered “consultative” when knowledge is simply gathered and collated, or “participatory” when knowle...
Stakeholder engagement and participatory processes are becoming increasingly established research requirements, enabling the building of trust in, and acceptance of, research outcomes. Contributing to the EU-funded FP7 'FarmPath' project, partners across Europe developed a 'visioning process', in order to involve stakeholder groups in the identific...
The relation between human and nature is so diverse, specific and complex that is impossible to describe in an abstract. Evidences of long term healthy relations between humans and nature exist. However, at a global scale, the current environmental challenges and the decrease in humanity welfare are signs that many of human-nature interactions have...
Tourism related to bathing has a growing economic importance in the Guadiana Estuary in southern Spain and Portugal. Polls of local public opinion showed an awareness of potential and current threats to the aquatic environment posed by regulation of river flow and untreated/poorly-treated urban sewage discharge. Because of this strong concern for w...
Internet is an increasingly used tool opening a new era of communication. These
opportunities are progressively adopted in SP studies. Little consideration has been given to its
potential influence on sample composition and on how preferences are formed and stated. In
Praia da Vitória bay, located in Terceira Island, in Azores archipelago, Choice M...
Ria Formosa lagoon in southern Portugal has an important population of seagrasses that includes Zostera noltii in the intertidal area. The area is classified as a Natural Park and supports a major economic activity – clam farming. This activity has a direct influence on Z. noltii populations by removal seagrass beds and altering habitat. Geographic...
When dealing with complex issues commonly found in Coastal Zones, there is a need to find an efficient assessment strategy of processes and their causes, as well as a method which could effectively promote a dialogue with the stakeholder affected by these processes. This dialogues is an essential part of problem structuring routine since it allows...
Estuaries belong to the most biologically productive ecosystems of our planet, and do offer countless ecosystem services which
are relying on the scenic beauty and on overall environmental quality. Their multipurpose attractiveness explains the ever
evolving process of occupation by humans. In Guadiana estuary which is the terminal segment of a 730...
O Compêndio de Economia Regional que agora se reedita, essencialmente elaborado e escrito por investigadores portugueses ou que leccionam em universidades portuguesas, insere-se nos projectos de apoio ao ensino da APDR (Associação Portuguesa para o Desenvolvimento Regional). Trata-se de uma obra de carácter pedagógico, destinada ao público que se i...
System Approach Framework (SAF) includes a sequence of steps with the overall purpose to develop a self- evolving, holistic research approach for integrated appraisal of Coastal Systems so that the existing scientific knowledge can be available to support deliberative and decision-making processes aimed at improving the sustainability of Coastal Sy...
The lagoon system of Ria Formosa is important for both nature conservation and economic development. Its important ecological characteristics have been reemphasized by its protection by national law since and its inclusion in international conservation instruments. In the last decades, increasing threats to the area have appeared. These threats are...
This project represents a contribution for the development of an integrated
management plan for the meadows of Z. noltii in the intertidal zone of Ria Formosa.
Using a Geographic Information System (GIS) and photo-interpretation, it was perform
the mapping of the meadows of Z. noltii in the intertidal zone. Is was created a GIS model for
analyses o...
Questions
Question (1)
Im a planning a workshop in a transdisciplinary format where the goal is to define future activities and a strategy. Any suggestions?
Projects
Projects (11)
The overall goal of this project is to improve the estimation of key wildfire fuel variables using an innovative multi-source remotely-sensed data framework (Multispectral, SAR, and LiDAR). The project will focus on canopy and shrub variables that are crucial for wildfire spread and will concentrate in a fire-prone area in central Portugal.
Dear Colleagues,
The Mediterranean basin has a long history of agricultural production contributing to many other ecosystem services at the same time. Mediterranean farming systems are characterized by small scales, low intensity, and high natural value systems, e.g., silvopastoralism, mixed farming, or agroforestry. Today, these systems coexist with more intensive and input-demanding ones, and are mainly located on the coastal plain where other pressures coexist, such as strong urbanization and massive tourism. In this Special Issue, we invite papers in form of case studies that present and discuss current farming system dynamics in the Mediterranean, and their impacts on farming practices, species diversity, and local food systems. Moreover, we encourage papers aimed at identifying and discussing the main drivers of territorial dynamics in these areas at different spatial scales. Case studies involving stakeholder perception of changes and their future visions for scenario analysis are welcome. The link between identified environmental patterns and the capacity of the agricultural systems to contribute to the local food system of urban areas is also of interest.
Dr. Marta Debolini
Dr. Maria Helena Guimaraes
Dr. Elisa Marraccini
Guest Editors: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/land/special_issues/Mediterraneanlandsystem
Q Methodology can facilitate dialogue while also imposing prioritization. Here are a few experiments with Q sorting