Space-time analysis of the urban-rural grafient in the metropolitan area of Madrid and ist surroundings -Guadalajara and Toledo.

According to UN provisions in the period from 2007 to 2050 world population will grow up to 9200 million people. In fact, for the first time in history, in the year 2008 world urban population became higher than rural population. The increase of urban areas and their transport infrastructures has influenced agricultural land use due to their irreversible change, especially when they remain as periurban vacant land, losing their character and identity. In the Europe of the nineties, the traditional urban-rural gradient, characterized by a neat contact between both land types, has become so complex that it has change to a gradient in which it is difficult to separate urban and rural land uses. [Antrop 2004]. A literature review has been made on methodologies used for the urban-rural gradient analysis. One of these methodologies was selected that integrates ecological characterization based on the use of spatial metrics and geographical characterization based on spatial components. Cartographical sources used were Corine Land Cover at 1: 100000 scale and the Spanish Land Use Information System at 1:25000 scale. Urban-rural gradient paradigm is an analysis methodology, coming from landscape ecology, which enables to investigate how urbanization provokes changes in ecological patterns and processes into landscape. [Hahs and McDonnell 2006].The present research adapt this methodology to study the urban-rural gradient in the outskirts of Madrid, Toledo and Guadalajara. Both scales (1:25000 and 1:100000) were simultaneously used to reach the next objectives: 1) Analysis of landscape pattern dynamics in relation to distance to the town centre and major infrastructures. 2) Analysis of landscape pattern dynamics in the fringe of protected areas. The paper presents a new approach to the urban-rural relationship which allows better planning and management of urban áreas.

Advanced Characterisation of a Coffee Fermenting Tank by Multi-distributed Wireless Sensors: Spatial Interpolation and Phase Space Graphs

The fermentation stage is considered to be one of the critical steps in coffee processing due to its impact on the final quality of the product. The objective of this work is to characterise the temperature gradients in a fermentation tank by multi-distributed, low-cost and autonomous wireless sensors (23 semi-passive TurboTag® radio-frequency identifier (RFID) temperature loggers). Spatial interpolation in polar coordinates and an innovative methodology based on phase space diagrams are used. A real coffee fermentation process was supervised in the Cauca region (Colombia) with sensors submerged directly in the fermenting mass, leading to a 4.6 °C temperature range within the fermentation process. Spatial interpolation shows a maximum instant radial temperature gradient of 0.1 °C/cm from the centre to the perimeter of the tank and a vertical temperature gradient of 0.25 °C/cm for sensors with equal polar coordinates. The combination of spatial interpolation and phase space graphs consistently enables the identification of five local behaviours during fermentation (hot and cold spots).