Natural Herigate Unit

Documenting, preserving and disseminating the natural and cultural heritage of the province of Jaen is the objective of the Natural Heritage Unit through the combined application of terrestrial and aerial photogrammetry techniques by the use of unmanned systems (UAS) and its integration into a Geographic Information System (GIS) for the documentation and monitoring of places of geological interest.

The project proposes a study that integrates a multidisciplinary team that is carrying out a complete work of multiscale documentation, storage, analysis and dissemination of meaningful elements of the natural heritage of the province of Jaen. This work aims to create protocols, principally based on geomatics techniques, to obtain products that, on the one hand, allow accurate documentation, but, on the other, allow the divulgation and dissemination of the natural heritage of the province of Jaen. These activities entailed to the launch of Natural Heritage Unit of CEACTierra, now called CEACTEMA.

The first results of this project were developed in the ‘Cascada de la Cimbarra’, in the Despeñaperros Natural Park. Also, other examples carried out by the research team related with the field of cultural heritage have also been presented in emblematic points of the province, such as the castles of ‘Baños de la Encina’ or ‘Berrueco’ or selected areas in the ‘Oppidum Íbero de Puente Tablas, among others.

These works are being carried out in the conviction that a monument, either natural or historical, and its surroundings, can only be restored and protected when they have been fully measured, documented and monitored, as well as its data stored in an appropriate management and information system.