Geopedology

The main aims are:
- to know the physical and geomorphological characteristics of mountain terrain
- to know the fundamentals for geomorphological features of moutaineous areas
- to give the fundamentals to understand the processes involved in the formation of the different soil types and their interactions with the other environmental factors, such as natural vegetation and agricultural uses, climate, lithologi substrate, geomorphic properties;
- to know the soil description and sampling techniques will be learnt in the field during excursions in different mountain habitats;
- to know the basics of soil mapping and land evaluation will be treated as well, taking into account the soil degradation processes such as erosion.

The learning outcomes include:
- to recognise and describe geomorphological feature typical of the moutaineous areas, both in the field and from maps;
- a general view of the soil functions in the ecosystem;
- the capacity of interpreting the different soil tyoes and their relationships with other environmental factors (geomorphology, geology, climate, vegetation and agriculture), their specific limitations and their sustainable use
- ability to describe and sample a soil profile in the field;
-ability to interpret a soil and land capability map