Professor at the University of Seville. PhD in Geography. Postgraduate in Rural Management and Ecology by the ITC, the Netherlands. Degree in Territory and Urbanism by the I.A.P. in Spain.

Throughout her career she has collaborated with international institutions like FAO, CONACYT and AECID, and has contributed to different European and Spanish research initiatives. In recent years she has led the research projects NATURBA (Naturbanization and the Preservation of Landscapes and the Environment) and NATURBOUNDS (Territories on the Border of Protected Areas). She is co-founder of several networks and research groups such as RESERP (Spanish Network of Renewable Energies and Landscapes) and EUSOCLAB (European Laboratory of Social Sciences). In addition to her experience in international cooperation between the Mediterranean and Latin American countries, she is a member of the National Management Committees of the EU COST actions Renewable Energy and Landscape Quality (RELY) and Urban Agriculture in the EU (UAE).

Her research interests includes: the dynamics of change in rural areas in southern Europe; spatial planning and the processes of rural development; the empirical analysis of territorial differences between different rural development models; good practices in social innovation and governance in rural areas; and recommendations for the implementation of public policies at regional scale. In recent years her work has been focused in the analysis of naturbanization processes –understood as the urban growth processes in the boundaries of protected areas- and the study of new rural landscapes linked to the implantation of renewable energies.

- Research group: Taller de Investigaciones Territoriales y Ambientales (HUM-738) 

- Scientific production