Aproximación a la magnetoestratigrafía de la última terraza media del Guadalquivir (T12) en "las Jarillas" (La Rinconada, Sevilla)

"Preliminary magnetostratigraphy of the Guadalquivir river last middle terrace (T12) in “Las Jarillas” (La Rinconada, Sevilla)" Present a model of alluvial in the last middle terrace (T12) in the Guadalquivir river from La Rinconada (Sevilla). Inside him it examines their facies, paleomagnetic analysis is performed some of their units and are located both archaeological and paleontological connections of Elephas antiquus. Magnetostratigraphy results raise a double possibility in the chronosequence that could encompass both isotopic stages 5, 6 and 7 as only 5

El registro geoarqueológico del sector sur de la Puerta Jerez (sevilla): últimos 4000 años en la sedimentación fluvial del Guadalquivir

One presents the record geoarcheology of the facies of vertical accretion of the plain of the Guadalquivir in the south sector outside of the city of Seville from a depth of-8,5m to the current street level. The sequence shows a long evolution from high tidal conditions, passing a terrace near the river with urban occupation to +3m asl. during the Roman period, reactivation of flooding from the IInd century d C. and new stability with the formation of fluvisols during the Low middle ages to +6m asl. From these moments the left as open space, first as an area of gardens and later (ss. XIV-XVIII), as a rubbish dump to slow down the strong erosion of the margin during the floods of the river. Se presenta el registro geoarqueológico de las facies de acreción vertical de la llanura del Guadalquivir en el sector sur extramuros de la ciudad de Sevilla desde una profundidad de -8,5m respecto al nivel de calle actual. La secuencia muestra una evolución prolongada, desde condiciones de marisma alta, pasando por una terraza próxima al río con ocupación urbana a +3m s.n.m. durante el periodo romano, reactivación de las inundaciones a partir del s II d C. y nueva estabilidad con formación de fluvisoles durante la Baja edad Media a +6m s.n.m. A partir de estos momentos el medio queda como espacio abierto, primero como ámbito de huertas y posteriormente (ss. XIV-XVIII), como vertedero de basuras para ralentizar la fuerte erosión de la margen durante las crecidas del río.Se presenta el registro geoarqueológico de las facies de acreción vertical de la llanura del Guadalquivir en el sector sur extramuros de la ciudad de Sevilla desde una profundidad de -8,5m respecto al nivel de calle actual. La secuencia muestra una evolución prolongada, desde condiciones de marisma alta, pasando por una terraza próxima al río con ocupación urbana a +3m s.n.m. durante el periodo romano, reactivación de las inundaciones a partir del s II d C. y nueva estabilidad con formación de fluvisoles durante la Baja edad Media a +6m s.n.m. A partir de estos momentos el medio queda como espacio abierto, primero como ámbito de huertas y posteriormente (ss. XIV-XVIII), como vertedero de basuras para ralentizar la fuerte erosión de la margen durante las crecidas del río

Comparative analysis of th floods in the Prague (Czechia) and in Seville (Spain): Seen from the geographical viewpoint

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La valoración de inversiones corporativas desde la perspectiva del capital intelectual : una aproximación multicriterio

El aumento de la complejidad en la definición y posterior adopción de estrategias corporativas, especialmente las relativas a las decisiones de inversión, es uno de los elementos más significativos derivados del escenario económico internacional en el que operan en la actualidad las empresas. Una serie de factores concretos explican esta circunstancia, tales como la intensificación de los problemas de agencia, el carácter multidimensional del factor riesgo, o la naturaleza intangible de buena parte de los beneficios que generan las inversiones de carácter estratégico adoptadas en el marco de la denominada economía del conocimiento. Todos estos factores de complejidad están condicionando la correcta y eficiente asignación de recursos en la empresa y los procesos de decisión que la modelan. Las técnicas financieras clásicas, que abordan la resolución de dichos procesos desde la perspectiva de la optimización de los atributos rentabilidad y riesgo, son en la actualidad criticadas por no considerar determinados beneficios intangibles que se derivan de los proyectos de inversión. El objetivo general de esta tesis doctoral es desarrollar un nuevo enfoque teórico de valoración de inversiones no financieras fundamentado en el constructo ampliamente aceptado de creación de valor de mercado entendido desde una perspectiva integral y completa. Este enfoque implica una redefinición del término creación de valor, incorporando a la generación de valor financiero la creación de valor no financiero o de capital intelectual, a la vista del decisivo protagonismo de los intangibles como fuente de valor y de ventaja competitiva sostenible. El enfoque teórico de valoración propuesto se articula a través de dos métodos de análisis multicriterio: el proceso analítico jerárquico y el proceso analítico en red. Ambos permiten integrar en el estudio tanto los criterios que inciden en la creación de valor financiero, como aquellos que contribuyen a la creación de valor no financiero o de capital intelectual. Esta integración permite que los dos modelos de valoración que aquí se proponen cuantifiquen el valor total que genera cada alternativa de inversión, con el fin de ayudar a los directivos en sus procesos de decisión corporativos. La metodología propuesta se implementa en dos casos de estudio de la industria agroalimentaria andaluza. El primero consiste en la valoración de tres alternativas de sistemas de gestión de la calidad en el sector cárnico y, en el segundo caso, se evalúan las posibles alternativas de sistemas de gestión ambiental en la industria almazarera. Los resultados de la implementación empírica, además de validar los modelos, han evidenciado la conveniencia de considerar los impactos de las inversiones sobre los activos intangibles de la empresa, pues estos determinan en el mundo real la selección de la alternativa de inversión óptima. Los dos métodos de valoración propuestos implican la formalización del proceso de valoración de inversiones no financieras que actualmente siguen los directivos en las empresas...Increasing complexity in terms of defining and subsequently adopting corporate strategies, especially those relating to investment decisions, is one of the most significant issues emerging from the international economic environment in which businesses operate today. A number of specific factors play a part in this situation, such as the intensification of agency problems , the multidimensional nature of the risk factor, or the intangible nature of many of the benefits generated by strategic investments within the so-called ‘knowledge economy’. All these factors of complexity affect the appropriate and efficient allocation of company resources and the decisionmaking processes that determine them. Classical financial techniques that seek to address these processes from the perspective of optimizing risk and return attributes are now criticized because this kind of analysis ignore several key intangible issues also involved in investment projects. The overall objective of this thesis is to develop a new theoretical approach to evaluating nonfinancial investments, based on the widely-accepted concept of ‘creating market value’, understood from a holistic, comprehensive perspective. This approach requires a redefinition of the term ‘value creation’ to incorporate the creation of nonfinancial value or intellectual capital alongside the concept of financial value creation. This reflects the decisive role of intangible benefits as a source of value and sustainable competitive advantage. The proposed theoretical valuation approach is applied via two multicriteria methods: the analytic hierarchy process and the analytic network process. These allow the inclusion in the analysis of both the criteria that influence the creation of financial value as well as those that contribute to the creation of nonfinancial value or intellectual capital. This integration allows the two proposed valuation models to quantify the total value generated by each investment alternative in order to assist decision-makers in corporate decision processes. The proposed methodology is implemented in two case studies of the Andalusian food industry. The first concerns the evaluation of three alternative systems of quality management in the meat sector, and the second case evaluates possible alternatives for environmental management systems in the olive oil industry. The results of the empirical implementation, as well as validating the models, demonstrate the merits of considering the impact of investments on an organization’s intangible assets, as these influence the selection of the optimal investment alternative in the real world. The two proposed methods of assessment involve formalizing the current process of evaluating nonfinancial investments carried out by a company’s decision makers..

Secuencia paleomagnética y paleolítica del Cuaternario aluvial del Bajo Guadalquivir: actualización y nuevos resultados

One proceeds to check the chronology attributed to the General Sequence of the Guadalquivir (SGG) by means of the application of the palaeomagnetic to his terraces. This one remains concentrated on more than 1.5 M.a with presence of lithic artifact of Achaelian adscription from ends of the Lower Pleistocene (0.9 M.a) until ends of the Middle Pleistocene

Building a Composite Indicator to Measure Environmental Sustainability Using Alternative Weighting Methods

Environmental sustainability in agriculture can be measured through the construction of composite indicators. However, this is a challenging task because these indexes are heavily dependent on how the individual base indicators are weighted. The main aim of this paper is to contribute to the existing literature regarding the robustness of subjective (based on experts’ opinions) weighting methods when constructing a composite indicator for measuring environmental sustainability at the farm level. In particular, the study analyzes two multi-criteria techniques, the analytic hierarchy process and the recently developed best-worst method, as well as the more straightforward point allocation method. These alternative methods have been implemented to empirically assess the environmental performance of irrigated olive farms in Spain. Data for this case study were collected from a panel of 22 experts and a survey of 99 farms. The results obtained suggest that there are no statistically significant differences in the weights of the individual base indicators derived from the three weighting methods considered. Moreover, the ranking of the sampled farms, in terms of their level of environmental sustainability measured through the composite indicators proposed, is not dependent on the use of the different weighting methods. Thus, the results support the robustness of the three weighting methods considered

Precautionary savings as an instrument to hedge the risk of hydrological drought in irrigated agriculture

This paper explores the use of precautionary savings as a new risk management instrument that can be implemented to hedge hydrological drought risk in irrigated agriculture, a risk currently not covered by any policy instrument. For this purpose, the Drought Savings Account (DSA) is proposed as a personal savings account to which farmers make regular contributions, with withdrawals allowed in the event of irrigation water supply gaps in order to guarantee a minimum income. The implementation of the DSA is empirically assessed in a Mediterranean-climate irrigation district using an innovative simulation approach. Based on the results obtained, the DSA has proved to be a theoretically suitable policy instrument that can overcome the problems hindering the implementation of agricultural insurance, managing the risk in a more cost-effective way. This cost-effectiveness is a key advantage of precautionary savings over agricultural insurance, since the former instrument minimizes moral hazard and adverse selection problems, and the transaction costs of risk-sharing. Moreover, in this context, precautionary savings may play a significant role as an efficient climate change adaptation measure since the self-insurance strategy adopted does not distort the signals underlying farmers’ own risk exposure, leading to better individual assessment and an adequate management of water supply gaps

Factors explaining the adoption of risk management instruments in mediterranean irrigated agriculture

Agriculture is highly impacted by different sources of risk. There is a wide variety of management instruments that farmers can use to cover these risks. The objective of this paper is to analyze the explanatory variables for the simultaneous adoption of a large set of risk management instruments. The main innovation is the methodological approach: first, we apply a hierarchical cluster analysis to identify the groups of instruments whose adoption is correlated; second, we use multivariate probit models to analyze the influence of different factors on the simultaneous adoption of the instruments included in each cluster. Explanatory variables capture farmers’ socio-demographic features, perception of risks, risk aversion and subjective perception of past risk experience; farms’ technical-economic characteristics; and perception of local-level climate change. The results show that there are significant differences in the variables influencing the adoption of the risk management instruments. The findings provide useful information to support the decision-making process for three main stakeholders: farmers (optimal choice over the joint use of instruments), providers of agricultural risk management instruments (e.g., the design of new combinations of risk management instruments better targeted to distinct profiles of farmers), and policymakers (policy strategies aiming to promote better risk management within the agricultural sector)

The predictive power of farmers’ risk attitude measures elicited by experimental methods

Aim of study: Farmers’ behavior is shaped by their individual attitudes towards risk. Consequently, an understanding of the heterogeneous risk attitudes among farmers is key to predicting their decision-making. Therefore, there is a need for reliable methods to assess individuals’ risk attitudes. The main objective of this paper was to contribute to the existing literature about the external validity of risk attitude measures obtained with diverse experimental methods.Area of study: Irrigated agriculture in a Mediterranean climate region.Material and methods: Two different experimental methods widely applied in the agricultural sector were used to elicit farmers’ risk attitudes in a sample of irrigators in southern Spain: the Eckel and Grossman lottery-choice task and a self-assessment general risk question. We evaluated the explanatory power of both measures for the farming risk borne by farmers, using an approach based on dispersion measures of farming returns.Main results: Results revealed stability across these elicitation methods, but the study yielded no evidence of statistical correlation with the farming risk actually borne by farmers, suggesting that it may not be advisable to use these methods for directly predicting farmers’ decision-making in modeling exercises.Research highlights: The most relevant innovation of this paper was the validation approach followed, based on measures assessing the overall level of farming risk borne by individual producers, and the complementary analyses controlling for key variables that could affect farmer risk-taking

Human activities and inundation risks in the plain of the Guadalquivir River (in the reach between Palam del Río and Seville)

Se presenta la ocupación antrópica de la llanura de inundación del Guadalquivir desde época histórica. Con ello se pone de manifiesto la falta de una planificación integrada frente al riesgo de inundación de la misma desde mediados del siglo XX hasta la actualidad. Esta situación genera cambios geomorfológicos irreversibles en el cauce y un comportamiento diferenciado en el riesgo potencial de inundación. En la ciudad de Sevilla, las intervenciones estructurales unidas a la incisión del cauce permiten evacuar las crecidas para magnitudes inferiores a 3.500 m3/s. Aguas arriba de Cantillana, la colmatación del cauce vinculada a la presa, la convergencia de afluentes regulados y la expansión urbana, provocan en la actualidad riesgos de inundación en zonas históricamente no inundables para estos caudales.We present the anthropic occupation of the flood plains of the Guadalquivir River from historic times. With it, we illustrate the lack of an integrated plan that would defend it from the risk of a flood from the middle of 20th century until today. This situation creates irreversible geomorphological changes in the riverbed and a differentiated behavior in the potential risk of flooding. In Seville, the structural works together with the incision of the riverbed permit the draining of the flooding of magnitudes lower than 3.500 m3/s. Up the river from Cantillana, the filling of the riverbed linked to the damn, the confluence of the regulated tributaries and the urban spreading, provoke today risks of floods in historically non-floodable areas for these water flows