Associate Professor of University School at EUITF since 2000 in the Forest Botany Teaching Unit. In 1989 he began his research activity in the line of Vegetation Cartography, being linked to the project of the Forest Map of Spain at scale 1:200000 uninterruptedly until the year 2000. From 2000 to 2008, through agreements with the Ministry of the Environment, he directed the mapping of Non-Tree Forest Roofs and Geobotanical Indicators at a scale of 1:50000 in 9 Autonomous Communities (22 provinces) and in 2009 the Vegetation Map of Castilla y León at a scale of 1:400000. In the field of Geobotany, he has carried out vegetation analysis studies in several territories (Madrid, Catalonia, Canary Islands, Majorca, Valencian Community and territory crossed by the French Way to Compostela from the Pyrenees). He has also developed studies of Phytocorology, deepening the analysis of Historical Phytogeography and Phytotoponymy, particularly in the northern Iberian System. She has collaborated in international projects financed by the European Commission for the Integral Management of hydrographic basins facing extreme events in Central and South America. He is co-author of 7 books, 12 articles and 7 communications to national and international congresses, as well as more than 20 vegetation maps.
Currently, he is still linked to the lines of Characterization and Classification of scrub and herbaceous cover in the Iberian Peninsula and Archipelagos, Monitoring and Evaluation of Non-Tree Forest Ecosystems, Vegetation Cartography and Phytogeography.
Outstanding publications
LÓPEZ LEIVA C., ESPINOSA RINCÓN J., BENGOA MARTÍNEZ DE MANDOJANA J.L., 2009. Mapa de Vegetación de Castilla y León. Síntesis 1:400.000. Consejería de Medio Ambiente. Junta de Castilla y León. Valladolid.
LÓPEZ LEIVA C., DE DIEGO JURADO S., GARCÍA VIÑAS J.I., PRADO GARCÍA I., MERINO GÓMEZ L., 2008. La clasificación de las cubiertas forestales no arboladas en el MFE50 la provincia de Palencia: Análisis de correspondencias con los hábitats de la Red Natura 2000. Cuadernos de la Sociedad Española de Ciencias Forestales.
RUIZ DEL CASTILLO Y NAVASCUÉS J., LÓPEZ LEIVA C., GARCIA VIÑAS J.I., VILLARES MUYO J.M., TOSTADO RIVERA P., GARCIA RODIRGUEZ C., 2006. The Forest Map of Spain 1:200.000. Methodology and analysis of general results. Investigación Agraria: Sistemas y Recursos Forestales. Fuera de Serie: 24-39