Science isn't reserved for credentialed people—it's in the dunes around you
Along eight kilometers of northern Portuguese coastline, the University of Minho and the municipality of Viana do Castelo have offered the public something quietly radical: a 147-page field guide that transforms a seaside walk into an act of scientific literacy. Released to mark fifty years of the School of Sciences, 'Walking with Science' invites residents and visitors alike to read the landscape — its ancient granites, its rare birds, its invasive species, its centuries of human settlement — as a living text. In a region aspiring to UNESCO Geopark status, the gesture speaks to a broader conviction that understanding the natural world is not a privilege of institutions, but a right of communities.
- Scientific knowledge risks remaining locked inside universities while the landscapes it describes erode, are misunderstood, or go unnoticed by the very communities living alongside them.
- A coastal trail in northern Portugal — home to rare birds, million-year-old granite boulders, ancient rock carvings, and invasive species quietly displacing native vegetation — holds far more complexity than any casual walker would suspect.
- Three researchers coordinated biologists, geologists, physicists, chemists, and mathematicians to document over a hundred ecological and cultural landmarks across the Ecovia do Litoral Norte, producing a free, accessible guide anyone can carry.
- The 147-page publication is now freely available, positioning an eight-kilometer walk between Praia Norte and Fortim de Paçô as both a community resource and a contribution to the region's aspirant UNESCO Geopark designation.
- What began as a fiftieth-anniversary initiative for the School of Sciences is landing as something larger — a model for how universities might return knowledge to the territories and people that surround them.
The University of Minho's School of Sciences and the municipality of Viana do Castelo have released a free 147-page field guide transforming an eight-kilometer stretch of northern Portuguese coastline into what they call a 'living laboratory.' Titled 'Walking with Science,' the publication opens the Ecovia do Litoral Norte — running between Praia Norte and the Fortim de Paçô — to residents, tourists, teachers, and students as an open classroom.
The guide catalogs more than a hundred distinct features of the territory's ecological and historical character. Readers encounter sandpipers and yellow-legged gulls, dune-stabilizing sand lilies, ancient granite boulders, and rock carvings at Fornelos that speak to deep human presence. Traditional seaweed houses and old mills at Montedor mark centuries of coastal settlement. The guide also confronts contemporary pressures, documenting invasive species like acacia and beach willows competing with native vegetation.
The project grew from an initiative marking fifty years of the School of Sciences. Three researchers — Amaro Rodrigues, Raimundo Castro, and Ricardo Carvalhido — coordinated contributions from experts across biology, geology, physics, chemistry, and mathematics. The explicit aim was democratization: bringing scientific understanding out of the university and into the hands of the community.
José González-Méijome, president of the School of Sciences, described the work as an opening of science to society at large. The trail passes through territory designated as an aspirant UNESCO Geopark, lending the guide a significance beyond the local — positioning a morning walk along the coast as part of a global conversation about how humanity understands and protects the natural world.
The University of Minho's School of Sciences and the municipality of Viana do Castelo have released a free field guide designed to turn an eight-kilometer stretch of northern Portuguese coastline into an open classroom. The 147-page publication, titled "Walking with Science," invites anyone—residents, tourists, teachers, students—to explore the Ecovia do Litoral Norte between Praia Norte and the Fortim de Paçô as what the university calls a "living laboratory."
The guide catalogs more than a hundred distinct examples of what makes this coastal territory ecologically and historically significant. Readers will encounter the small sandpiper and yellow-legged gull, birds that help stabilize the dunes alongside sand lilies and starlings. They'll learn about the old mills at Montedor and the traditional seaweed houses that mark centuries of human settlement. The guide documents twenty-five massive granite boulders, each millions of years old, and rock carvings at Fornelos that speak to even deeper human presence. But the guide does not shy away from contemporary challenges either—it addresses invasive species like acacia and beach willows that now compete with native vegetation.
The project emerged from a broader initiative marking fifty years of the School of Sciences. Three researchers—Amaro Rodrigues, Raimundo Castro, and Ricardo Carvalhido—coordinated the effort, drawing on expertise from biologists, geologists, physicists, chemists, and mathematicians. The aim was deliberate: to bring scientific knowledge out of the university and into the hands of the community, making the landscape itself a text to be read.
José González-Méijome, president of the School of Sciences, framed the work as an act of democratization. The university is valuing the biological and geological diversity of the region while opening science to society at large. The trail itself passes through territory designated as an aspirant UNESCO Geopark, a designation that recognizes the area's exceptional geological and ecological heritage. In this way, the guide positions a local walk along the coast as something larger—part of a global conversation about how we understand and protect the natural world.
The free publication is now available to anyone who wants to spend a morning or afternoon moving through eight kilometers of dunes, rocky outcrops, and human history, equipped with the knowledge to see what they're actually looking at.
Notable Quotes
We are valuing biodiversity and geological diversity while making science open to society— José González-Méijome, president of the School of Sciences, University of Minho
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why did the university decide to create a physical guide rather than, say, an app or a website?
There's something about holding a book in your hands while you're standing on the actual ground. You're not scrolling—you're present. The guide becomes part of the walk itself, a companion that slows you down and makes you notice.
Who is the intended audience? Is this for serious naturalists or casual walkers?
Both, really. The guide assumes no prior knowledge. A child can use it. A retired geologist can use it. That's the point—science isn't reserved for credentialed people. It's in the dunes and the rocks and the birds around you.
The guide mentions invasive species. Why include that alongside the beautiful natural heritage?
Because honesty matters. This coastline is real, not a postcard. The invasive plants are part of the story now. If you're going to understand what you're looking at, you need to understand the pressures it faces.
The trail passes through an aspirant UNESCO Geopark. Does that designation change how people experience the walk?
It contextualizes it. It says: this isn't just a nice local trail. This is recognized internationally as a place of geological and ecological significance. That recognition can shift how people value what they're walking through.
What happens after someone reads the guide and takes the walk?
Ideally, they see their region differently. They understand that science isn't abstract—it's in the granite boulders beneath their feet and the birds overhead. That shift in perception is where conservation begins.