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In line with global trends, the Valencian Region (Spain) is experiencing increasingly extreme wildfires, exacerbated by entangled socioenvironmental factors like climate change, the human-nature dichotomy, and wildfires managed basically through technocratic approaches. Rural grassroots movements are emerging amid worsening wildfires, advocating for local agency to build socioenvironmental resilience in wildfire-prone territories. Inspired by these movements, we propose a transformative paradigm – a New Fire Culture – to elicit critical reflections on current wildfire management and build socioenvironmental just futures. By drawing on our experiences around the 2022 Vall d'Ebo and 2023 Villanueva de Viver wildfire events and resulting from an interdisciplinary deliberation process, we present a comprehensive analysis of the present wildfire context and suggest guiding principles for a New Fire Culture. Acknowledging its context-specificity, we call for transdisciplinary processes among local actors, academics, and practitioners to collectively explore and build a New Fire Culture within their socioenvironmental systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The degradation of water quality and riparian vegetation in Mediterranean rivers is today a major environmental problem. The upper basin of the Mijares river flows through the province of Teruel from its source in the municipality of El Castellar at 1,500 meters high and forms some impressive canyons and river landscapes in this upper section of great environmental value. However, this research qualitatively analyzes the quality of its waters and the riverside vegetation to show that this great territorial resource for rural development in the area presents important levels of degradation. Subsequently, it is discussed in the light of the data obtained, that the areas in depopulation and with very little human presence also present environmental problems that are related to a very weak institutional presence in this type of territories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The local and regional administrations of Valencia, Spain, have been working to position the city, which is the country's third largest in terms of population, as an international destination for luxury tourism through sports mega-events. Valencia's new image as a "mega-events city" has been criticized by citizens and urban-based movements on social and environmental grounds, resulting in various urban conflicts. The aim of this paper is to examine the causes and dynamics of these conflicts in order to understand the discourse and rationales behind the criticism. This will also include an examination of the ways in which these conflicts were managed by the local administration, especially in the months leading up to and during the events, when the city was receiving worldwide media coverage. Researching local print media, we focused on urban conflicts that took place in Valencia between 1995 and 2010. We also looked at the performance of urban-based movements and the administration as conflicting actors. One of the main findings was the strong consensual authoritarianism manifested by the administration and mega-event organizers when making decisions and managing urban conflicts related to mega-events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]