CENTRO DE INVESTIGACION ECOLOGICA Y APLICACIONES FORESTALES

CREAF is a public research center dedicated to terrestrial ecology, territorial analysis and global change, pursuing excellence in the production and dissemination of knowledge, in addition to the innovation, development, and transfer of methodologies.

The center strives to contribute to knowledge on conservation and management of the environment and the territory, in addition to adaptation to environmental change at local, regional, and global scales, functioning as a bridge between academia, administrations, and society, and promoting awareness within its scope of activities.

They collaborate in the design of water scarcity adaptation measures, the evaluation of climate change impacts on water resources, the study of the water cycle via satellite imagery, and inspection of water quality in watersheds. Examples in this field are: evaluation of impact of climate change on water resources, studies on the effects of water scarcity on biodiversity and ecosystems, relationship between land use and the demand for and availability of water, multidisciplinary and integrated treatment of water use, identification of social and territorial vulnerability to water scarcity, design of adaptation measures to water scarcity, demonstrative experiments at the Mediterranean level. They have experience on evaluating the capacity of forests to act as carbon sinks and the measures to reduce the impacts of climate change.

CREAF hosts a consolidated research Group dedicated to the study of soil as a natural system as well as the recovery of soils degraded due to human activities. They have experience in the protection and rehabilitation of degraded soils. Combining soils or discarded mineral materials with organic amendments creates a new soil substrate allowing the rehabilitation of highly degraded areas or those not recoverable by natural processes. This strategy has been applied with success in the restoration of quarries, landfills, slopes, and forest areas affected by wildfire.

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