This paper proposes a methodology for quantifying the territorial impact on population distribution of the railway. The central hypothesis is that access to railway services provides the best-connected areas with a long-term comparative advantage over others that are less accessible. Carrying out a historical analysis and providing comparable data at the municipal level allows us to determine the extent to which the railway has fostered the concentration of population within its immediate surroundings. The case study presented here is that of Spain between 1900 and 2001, but the same methodology could equally be applied to any other country for which the required data are available. In this case, key data included a Geographic Information System with information about both the development of the railway network and census data relating to total population at the municipal level. The results obtained suggest the relevance of this methodology, which makes it possible to identify the periods and areas in which this influence was most significant.

Introduction. There has been increasing interest in the domesticationpotential of indigenous fruit trees. Nevertheless, our understanding of how these species’abundance and yield of fruit is altered by ecological conditions, which is critical toforesee realistic sustainable management plans, is limited. Materials andmethods. We used local ecological knowledge, presence / absence data andquantitative methods to examine the effect of ecological conditions on the distribution,abundance and yields of tamarind trees (T. indica) across threeecological regions in Benin, West Africa. Results and discussion. Ruralcommunities’ knowledge on the species’ ecological range was congruent with scientificfindings. The natural distribution of tamarind individuals was limited to the Sudanian andthe Sudano-Guinean regions and their density declined with increasing moisture, beinghighest (2 trees·km-2) in the Sudanian region and lowest in theGuineo-Congolian region (scarce). On the other hand, fruit and pulp mass and number ofseeds per fruit varied significantly, being higher in the Guineo-Congolian wetter region.However, no significant variation occurred among ecological regions for estimated overallfruit yields per tree. This might indicate that tamarind trees tend to invest in a smallnumber of very large fruits under wetter conditions and a very large number of smallfruits under dryer conditions. Conclusion. The results showed that semi-aridlands would best suit T. indica domestication. Nevertheless, itsproductivity could be higher under wetter conditions. Because of its affinity for galleryforests, we recommend thorough studies on its capacity to survive the increasing droughtin its current ecological range.