Traditionally, medium-sized cities have been compact urban centres, which have also emerged as satellite nuclei within metropolitan areas of larger cities. However, urban dispersion models have led to growth in population and the increasing urbanisation of large cities’ peripheral areas. This article will analyse medium-sized cities in Spain, as well as their urban areas within the national urban network. Medium-sized cities will be defined herein, and their urban areas of influence will also be established. The increase and growth in area and population of the so-called medium-sized cities draws a new map of urban relationships. Empirical analysis will resort to a nuclear, demographic source, the population of urban areas. Source data will be analysed both statistically and cartographically. Finally, a spatial analysis of Spain’s urban network will be presented as the main method used to obtain results, with a characterisation of Spain’s urban system and the role of cities in such system being displayed. There is a trend which aims at re-balancing the permanent configuration of the country’s urban network. The article concludes with a typology of medium-sized cities regarding their relative position in the territory. This research contributes to the current scientific debate on the dynamics of urbanisation in the environment of medium-sized cities.

Environmental problems endanger the sustainability and survival of our planet. A way to raise awareness of the seriousness of the current environmental situation among future citizens and instill proactive behaviors that place the environment at the center of decision-making is environmental education. This study analyzes nine primary and secondary education textbooks in order to see what environmental education students receive as part of the subject of geography across the years of compulsory education in Spain. These textbooks are published by three different and main companies, which are a good example of the adaptation of the official curriculum. The study was conducted using the design and development of a coding sheet combining analysis of format (quantitative) and content (qualitative). The results show much room for improvement there is in environmental education in Spain. This improvement should start from the organization of the curriculum and its subsequent transposition into the textbooks. Thus, many changes are needed if we wish to build a society capable of effectively solving the threat of the environmental problems that surround us.

There is growing interest in assessing the knowledge acquired by students. More often and in diverse disciplines it is necessary to know the level of the students through different types of testing. In the case of teaching of geography in Spain, there is a decrease and loss of such learning for various reasons. The aim of this research is to analyze the literacy in geography of university students in the Grado en Maestro de Educación Primaria (Degree in Elementary Education Teaching) for its possible multiplier effect, since they will be the ones who teach geography to future generations. In order to achieve this, our data source is based on a sample of 629 mental maps from students from four Spanish universities located in different autonomous communities in Spain. The knowledge of the assessed administrative unit was taken into value, but also its location and representation, showing the importance of the where in geography. Results show the inconsistent knowledge of the future teachers depending on the place of residence and which level of the structure of the country they are asked about. In turn, these results reinforce the usefulness of mental maps as an optimal method to assess geographic knowledge.

Resumen El inicio del siglo XXI ha sido muy compulsivo en la dinámica urbana española. La causa principal ha sido el crecimiento urbanístico explosivo que tuvo lugar entre 2000 y 2008 y su siguiente paralización por la Gran Recesión. El artículo analiza este proceso centrado en las ciudades medias y sus respectivas coronas dentro del contexto nacional. Se plantea un estudio comparado de la evolución de la población y de las unidades constructivas de las ciudades medias y sus áreas urbanas. Las fuentes utilizadas son el Padrón Municipal de Habitantes y el Catastro Inmobiliario. La investigación se realiza mediante un método deductivo. Los resultados obtenidos muestran una respuesta dispar de las ciudades españolas dentro del patrón común marcado por el punto de inflexión que supuso la crisis, con un contexto general de desarrollo hasta 2008 y de caída posterior. Además, se produce un comportamiento diferente del crecimiento urbano en relación con la proximidad a una gran área metropolitana.

This article presents a methodological proposal using the cadastre as a tool to analyze urbanization dynamics. It is backed by an in-depth review of the related literature concerning Spain and Mediterranean Europe. The work uses the cadastre as a source of information, specifically leveraging the urban parcels and real estate obtained from the CAT files. After the data were collected, interpreted and organized, complementary statistical and cartographic methodologies and tools were used, together with the required database management. The goal of the study was to analyze the behavior of five intermediate cities and their urban areas, with the aim of comparing the construction dynamics between the cities and the municipalities located in their respective areas of influence in the period 2000–2016. The work is framed within the debate on urban sprawl, sustainability and the need for tools for town and regional planning. The main conclusion of the work reflects the necessity of a better understanding of the processes of transformation in cities, in which the use of cadastral data is key, given its reliability and updated information, despite the difficulty involved in accessing the data structure.

Today there is a growing interest in measuring the academic performance and the acquisition of certain skills and content by students at different ages. It has also been extended to the field of geography in recent years. The objective of this paper is to analyse the geo-literacy of a sample of university students of the degree in Primary Education Teacher by its possible multiplier effect, since they will be the ones who teach geography to future generations. In order to achieve the formulated objective, 168 students from the University of Salamanca participated in this research. They were administered a questionnaire made up of socio-demographic questions and a question in which the respondents have to draw a mental map of the political-administrative division of Spain. The results indicate that those surveyed students have some difficulties in locating the provinces of our country, especially those furthest from their place of origin.