The course deals with the environmental assessment and management of complex problems that have significant implications for human society and anthropogenic activities. Four main training objectives are proposed: 1) to analyze the big picture of the implications of ecological processes for humanity, having as reference the main international directives and conventions as guidelines; 2) to study a series of ecological phenomena and biogeochemical processes that are the basis of important ecosystem services, emphasizing their quantitative aspects; 3) verify the relevance of some of these processes on a local / regional scale; 4) analyze the general guidelines for the sustainable management of living natural resources.