Introduction: why forelands? • Geophysical and geological constraints on the evolution of the Guadalquivir foreland basin (Spain) • Lateral diapiric emplacement of triassic evaporites at the southern margin of the Guadalquivir basin, Spain • Alluvial gravel sedimentation in a contractional growth fold setting, Sant Llorenc de Morunys, south-eastern Pyrenees • Quantified vertical motions and tectonic evolution of the SE Pyrenean foreland basin • Cyclicity and basin axis shift in a piggyback basin: towards modelling of the Eocene tremp-ager basin, South Pyrenees, Spain • Fluid migration during Eocene thrust emplacement in the south Pyranean foreland basin •Spain): an integrated structural, mineralogical and geochemical approach • Sequential restoration of the external Alpine Digne thrust system, SE France, constrained by kinematic data and synorogenic sediments • History and deformation rates of a thrust sheet top basin: the Barreme basin, western Alps, SE France • Thin-skin inversion tectonics at oblique basin margins: example of the western Vercors and Chartreuse Subalpine massifs (SE France) •Horizontal shortening control of Middle Miocene marine siliciclastic accumulation - Upper Marine Molasse - in the southern termination of the Savoy Molasse Basin (northwestern Alps/southern Jura) • Evolution of the western Swiss Molasse basin: structural relations with the Alps and the Jura belt • Eustatic versus tectonic controls on Alpine foreland basin fill: sequence stratigraphy and subsidence analysis in the SE German Molasse • Reservoir analog modelling of sandy tidal sediments, Upper Marine Molasse, SW Germany, Alpine foreland basin • Tectono-stratigraphy and hydrocarbons in the molasse foredeep of Salzburg, upper and lower Austria • Automation of stratigraphic simulations -quasi-backward modelling using genetic algorithms • Numerical modelling of growth strata and grain-size distributions associated with fault-bend folding • Flexure and ‘unflexure’ of the north Alpine German–Austrian molasse basin: constraints from forward tectonic modelling