Cyanobacteria, green algae and diatoms are significant factors in the biodeterioration of stone cultural heritage sites, and specifically fountain monuments, due to the constant presence of water. In this study, samples were taken from different fountains in the Alhambra and Generalife, which are among the Spanish monuments of greatest historical and artistic value and which together were declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1984. The aim was to identify which species of colonising microalgae are most frequent and to obtain monoalgal cultures from them. From a conservation point of view, it is interesting to identify which algae are growing in these fountains and how they behave in order to develop new methods to control their growth. The most abundant groups of algae in our samples were green algae and cyanobacteria. The most common genera in the former group were Bracteacoccus, Chlorosarcina, Chlorosarcinopsis, Apatococcus and Klebsormidium. As for cyanobacteria, the most abundant genera were Phormidium, Calothrix, Leptolyngbya, Chamaesiphon, Pleurocapsa and Chlorogloea. Using our collected samples, 10 genera of green algae and 13 genera of cyanobacteria were isolated, thereby constituting the base samples for the creation of a reference collection of living algae from the Alhambra and Generalife contexts, which can be used in subsequent studies to develop new types of treatment against biodeterioration.

The objective of this study was to provide the global community of interested scholars with an updated understanding of digital humanities in Spain, in terms of researchers and research centres, disciplines involved and research topics of interest, trends in digital resources development, main funding bodies and the evolution of their investment since the early nineties. One of the characteristics that differentiates this study from previous approaches is the information used to carry out the research. It combines large datasets of publicly available data from trusted sources with a handpicked selection of records grouping information scattered over the Web. Most of the evidence detected by other studies has been numerically confirmed. At the same time, the new metrics and values established constitute a reference base for monitoring the future evolution of the discipline, and thus favour comparisons. Half of the researchers were found to be affiliated to only nine institutions, whereas the other half of them were scattered across 84 locations. Department affiliation showed a varied pattern of the different degrees of specialization in each institution. Although the major historic role played by Philology was confirmed, the rising interest of other areas of the Humanities and Social Science produces a wider picture, which helped to identify five large clusters of research topics, centred on major disciplines. The quantitative analysis of funding, a dimension almost unexplored in the Humanities, proved to be a valuable way to assess the discipline and its historical evolution. In fact, it revealed interesting trends that led to our proposal of a three-phase periodization in the consolidation of digital humanities in Spain. The paper concludes with a set of recommendations regarding how to deal with issues that could harm the future development of this research area and the role that Spanish researchers can play in the international context.

La tendencia hacía la participación ciudadana en los procesos de investigación científica ha llegado para quedarse. La involucración de personas y colectivos vinculados a las temáticas de estudio permite el acceso a información privilegiada a nuevas fuentes primarias; puede llegar incluso a modificar los objetivos y la metodología de un proyecto, marcando el rumbo en el desarrollo de las actividades. Estos factores se incrementan cuando hablamos de proyectos en ciencias humanas y se potencian todavía más a través del uso de las tecnológicas digitales, plataformas web, aplicaciones y redes sociales, que recortan las distancias y amplían las herramientas a disposición del investigador.

Research in the humanities increasingly depends on how information is structured and managed and how, on the basis of that information, new knowledge is produced. Additionally, participatory approaches, which often rely on web information systems as their supportive infrastructure, have made an impact on the most recent historiographical trends, in particular in the methodological framework of digital humanities. The aim of this paper was to produce, from an operational and implementation perspective, a review of software solutions frequently used to develop web information systems for research projects in humanities and cultural heritage, in order to provide an understanding of the various possibilities available and their positives and limitations, also based on different users’ requirements. An individual and comparative analysis of sixteen different application frameworks commonly used in these fields, either generic or developed for a specific research domain, has been carried out, considering their main functionalities, strengths, and weaknesses. The achieved results facilitate critical and reasoned decision-making among several available options, guiding the makers of those systems, both researcher(s) and developers(s), and providing them also with a common ground of terms and use cases to facilitate their necessary dialogue. Resumen La investigación en humanidades depende cada vez más de cómo se estructura y gestiona la información y de cómo, a partir de ella, se produce nuevo conocimiento. Además, los enfoques participativos, que a menudo utilizan los sistemas de información de la web como su infraestructura de soporte, han influido en las tendencias historiográficas más recientes, en particular en el marco metodológico de las humanidades digitales. El objetivo de este trabajo ha sido realizar, desde una perspectiva operativa y de implementación, una revisión de soluciones software comúnmente utilizadas para el desarrollo de sistemas de información web en proyectos de investigación en humanidades y patrimonio cultural, con el fin de proporcionar una visión de las distintas opciones disponibles, con sus aspectos positivos y sus limitaciones, también en función de diferentes necesidades a nivel usuario. Se ha llevado a cabo un análisis individual y comparativo de dieciséis paquetes software comúnmente utilizados en estos campos, ya sean genéricos o desarrollados para un dominio de investigación específico, considerando sus principales funciones, fortalezas y debilidades. Los resultados obtenidos facilitan una toma de decisiones crítica y razonada entre varias opciones disponibles, ofreciendo orientación a los creadores de esos sistemas, tanto investigadores como desarrolladores, y proporcionando también una base común de términos y casos de uso para facilitar su necesario diálogo.