Maria Jose LaRota-Aguilera

• PhD Ecology MA Geography
• Post-doc and Project Manager at Autonomous University of Barcelona

We hypothesize that biocultural landscapes configured by indigenous, peasant, and afro traditional agricultural systems, significantly contribute to the ecological functionality of the metropolitan region of Cali (Colombia). Current landscapes reflect an ongoing local transition from organic-based agriculture to an industrial one that began in the...

Transformations in the agri-food system since the early 19th century have led to an unprecedented increase in food production. However, the structure of this system has generated many negative environmental and social impacts that threaten the sustainability at the local, regional and global scale. This situation entails the need for an agroecologi...

Peri urban agriculture (peri-UA) can supply food locally and potentially more sustainably than far-away conventional agricultural systems. It can also introduce significant environmental impacts depending on the local biophysical conditions and resources required to implement it and, Fon the practices used to manage crops, which could vary widely a...

Current agricultural systems have reached a critical transition point in their biophysical performance, social and environmental impacts, and energy patterns. The theoretical underpinnings of transitions towards sustainable futures have been studied from different approaches. The perspective of Social Metabolism (SM) studies how dynamic equilibrium...

Planteamos la hipótesis de que los paisajes bioculturales, configurados por sistemas agrícolas indígenas, campesinos y afrodescendientes, contribuyen a la funcionalidad ecológica de los Andes tropicales. Los paisajes actuales en el valle del Cauca (Colombia) reflejan la transición de una agricultura de base orgánica a una industrial, iniciada en la...

Urban development and the sprawl of transport infrastructures have disregarded the crucial function of metropolitan landscape in provisioning human well-being and biodiversity. This research aims to contribute to the challenges of Planning for Sustainability by proposing a Socioecological Integrated Analysis (SIA) to support the Land Use Master Pla...

La transició socioecològica de les metròpolis requereix de criteris definits ad hoc per tal de captar les diferents categories estructurals dels seus paisatges i establir la seva contribució en el funcionament d’una infraestructura verda que faciliti la circularitat de l’economia (tancament dels cicles metabòlics, mitigació del canvi climàtic), el...

Agroecosystems are facing a global challenge amidst a socioecological transition that places them in a dilemma between increasing land-use intensity to meet the growing demand of food, feed, fibres and fuels, while avoiding the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services. We applied an intermediate disturbance-complexity approach to the land-use ch...