University of La Laguna

The Universidad de La Laguna (ULL) with more than 200 years of history is an institution open to the world. It hosts over 23,000 students, more than 1,800 lecturers and 800 administrative staff offering a high-quality catalogue of degrees and research programs meeting the objectives of the European Higher Education Area, helping graduates in the labor market and fostering the economic development of the Canary Islands region. Recently recognized as a European Regional Campus of International Excellence by the Spanish Ministry of Education, it has huge ties with Latin America and Africa being a university in the north Atlantic region stretching over three continents. It is a big community located in one of the regions with the greatest biodiversity and natural wealth in all of Europe. Our historical and cultural heritage dates back before Columbus’ first voyage to the Americas.

ULL is equipped with research infrastructures of medium/high cost, performing in the fields of biodiversity, physics or astrophysics. Furthermore, ULL holds the General Research Support Service, a modern structure providing instrumental support to research groups, offering services and technology to companies and collaborating on business innovation and development.

The ULL team include researchers from “Grupo de Observación de la Tierra y la Atmósfera” (GOTA) and “Marine Biodiversity, Ecology and Conservation group” (BIOECOMAC). BIOECOMAC works in the taxonomic, biological and ecological study of the marine biodiversity, especially the Canary Islands and Macaronesia, dealing with different subjects: the management of marine and coastal areas, including the design and monitoring of marine protected areas; the study of cetacean populations, especially in the ecology of species with resident populations; effect of climate change on marine biodiversity and tropicalization processes; impact of alien invasive marine species on the Canarian marine biota. On the other hand, GOTA is a consolidated group of the ULL since 1993. It is currently part of the “Network of Excellence in Energy, Water and Environment of the ULL” within the program of networks of technological excellence of the Technological Institute of the Canary Islands. One of the lines of action of GOTA is the application of remote sensing techniques to environmental problems: mapping of ecosystem services, crop maps, mapping of forest areas in Macaronesia and Morocco and detection of burned areas on a global scale.

In MOVE, we are involved mainly in Activity 4 (Facilitating MAES in Europe’s Overseas) and specifically in developing and applying Remote Sensing and GIS-based mapping tools to provide land-coastal-marine spatial coverage of proxies for ecosystem services assessment and monitoring.

Website: www.ull.es