Konstantinos Karystinakis

The management of grazing is an important factor to enhance the extensive livestock farming and entrepreneurship in this sector. As reference spatial unit for grazing, grasslands are protected according to the national and European legislation. This study presents an interdisciplinary and multi-level approach to assess the environmental, productive and nutritional condition of pastures using innovative technologies such as time-series satellite data. The research area is the Koronia - Volvi… Εμφάνιση περισσότερων

The management of grazing is an important factor to enhance the extensive livestock farming and entrepreneurship in this sector. As reference spatial unit for grazing, grasslands are protected according to the national and European legislation. This study presents an interdisciplinary and multi-level approach to assess the environmental, productive and nutritional condition of pastures using innovative technologies such as time-series satellite data. The research area is the Koronia - Volvi national park, with a total area of 2,120,000 acres, and includes special conservation and special protection zones of NATURA 2000 network as well as a variety of grazing lands (grasslands, shrublands and forest ranges). The methodological framework of the environmental, productive and nutritional evaluation of grasslands was based on the selection, grouping and categorization of remote sensing indices based on a literature review. Indices were generated using Sentinel-2A satellite imagery and principal component analysis (PCA) as a linear data transformation method was applied. Additionally, indicators such as carbon stock and soil erosion model (RUSLE) were used in combination with the remote sensing indices. Lastly, the overall determination of the most suitable grasslands was presented using the spatial combination of the individual situations. Εμφάνιση λιγότερων

Flash floods are considered as the most common natural disaster worldwide during the last decades. The assessment of potential flood hazard zones is a necessity for preparedness and efficient protection against flood phenomena. In this study, a set of geomorphological and hydrological factors were estimated using GIS techniques. Also, a relative weight was assigned to each factor according to their importance on flash flood. The factors weights were derived from a multicriteria approach. The… Εμφάνιση περισσότερων

Flash floods are considered as the most common natural disaster worldwide during the last decades. The assessment of potential flood hazard zones is a necessity for preparedness and efficient protection against flood phenomena. In this study, a set of geomorphological and hydrological factors were estimated using GIS techniques. Also, a relative weight was assigned to each factor according to their importance on flash flood. The factors weights were derived from a multicriteria approach. The coupling of the above procedures led to the flood hazard mapping of the study area and the identification of flood prone areas. Afterward, vulnerability was evaluated using socioeconomic and environmental criteria. To this end, an integrated approach was implemented focusing on infrastructure and land use exposure to flash flood. It is worth mentioning that the proposed methodology has a high degree of transferability as it is based on open-source data. Worldwide, flash floods are the most common type of distaster. In addition, future climate projection for the Mediterranean Basin highlighted that more intensive heavy precipitation event will be more frequent, thus flood likelihood will be increase. During the last year, multi-criteria analysis has been extensively used for mapping flood hazard. The most common methodology for the determination of the factors weights is the Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP). In the current study, the assessment of flood hazard based on a multi-criteria approach using AHP and open-source geospatial data [...] Εμφάνιση λιγότερων

Sealoc system (sealoc.gr) has been operationally active online since the end of 2020. It has been developed, as a pilot system, by two Greek SMEs through funding from the Operational Program "Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation" (EPAnEK), Intervention I, of the NSRF 2014-2020 (project ID T1EDK-03595). The system combines four core building blocks: (1) interconnected in-house forecast models for wind and sea waves, (2) automated processes for marine forecasts' acquisition and… Εμφάνιση περισσότερων

Sealoc system (sealoc.gr) has been operationally active online since the end of 2020. It has been developed, as a pilot system, by two Greek SMEs through funding from the Operational Program "Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation" (EPAnEK), Intervention I, of the NSRF 2014-2020 (project ID T1EDK-03595). The system combines four core building blocks: (1) interconnected in-house forecast models for wind and sea waves, (2) automated processes for marine forecasts' acquisition and storage from Copernicus Marine Service (various parameters), (3) calculation and visualization engine for all associated datasets and (4) an interactive web interface and a mobile application. All four building blocks have been structured into an automated chain of processes which is functioning on a daily operationally basis without external interaction. The system provides every day a three-day length marine forecast of various parameters for the Mediterranean and the Greek Seas, in increasing height of spatial resolution. The visualizations and color scales, for every parameter, have been carefully developed so as to provide users all the necessary information "at an eye's glance". Moreover, both the web interface and the mobile app avail users a logon/ login capability in order for them to be further informed by statistically developed "experience parameters" focusing specifically to swimming and sailing activities. So far the operational activity of sealoc has been proven to be a success and its web interface and mobile app have gathered interest from the targeted users. Εμφάνιση λιγότερων

Wildfires have been an integral part of the Mediterranean ecosystem. Moreover, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report emphasizes that the Mediterranean basin is expected to be drier by the end of the 21st century, while future warming will possibly be higher than the global mean. Therefore, outbreaks of wildfires are expected to increase. One of the most important factors for wildfire behavior apart from the meteorological conditions, is fuel types. In this… Εμφάνιση περισσότερων

Wildfires have been an integral part of the Mediterranean ecosystem. Moreover, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report emphasizes that the Mediterranean basin is expected to be drier by the end of the 21st century, while future warming will possibly be higher than the global mean. Therefore, outbreaks of wildfires are expected to increase. One of the most important factors for wildfire behavior apart from the meteorological conditions, is fuel types. In this study, a detailed fuel type mapping in a case study area was addressed. To accomplish this goal, an object-based image analysis (OBIA) approach was implemented using the open-source Orfeo toolbox. The freely available Sentinel-2A satellite images were processed in combination with auxiliary European and National scale GIS data. The classification results demonstrate a high-quality Land Cover map with 84% of overall accuracy. The classified land cover polygons were associated with high-resolution tree cover density data derived from Copernicus Land Monitoring Service. This coupling led to the synthesis of the fuel type map. To this end, this approach can fulfill the efficient mapping of fuel types for operational purposes. This research has been co‐financed by the European Regional Development Fund of the European Union and Greek national funds through the Operational Program Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, under the call RESEARCH –CREATE –INNOVATE (project code:T2EDK-01967) Εμφάνιση λιγότερων

Ofire+ is a commercial human-centralized early warning system which aims in supporting managers on making informed decisions about proper management of human and material resources and the available response time towards threats from suburban wildland fires. The system consists of an administrator application as well as a user mobile application providing a direct communication channel between the two. The impact of the system is that it bridges the gap between informed decisions and… Εμφάνιση περισσότερων

Ofire+ is a commercial human-centralized early warning system which aims in supporting managers on making informed decisions about proper management of human and material resources and the available response time towards threats from suburban wildland fires. The system consists of an administrator application as well as a user mobile application providing a direct communication channel between the two. The impact of the system is that it bridges the gap between informed decisions and coordinated actions by incorporating scientific and timely operational data which are transformed into critical information. Ofire+ aligns with current EU priorities and can help in reducing societies' vulnerability and strengthening resilience, mitigating negative effects on economic activities, rationalizing insurance risk-based premiums and compensations, invigorating individual action, lessening governmental financial exposures and even in shaping concrete EU wildland fire safety policies. Furthermore, the implemented methodology is based on open satellite data which makes the system versatile and scalable. Ofire+ is currently in operational implementation in the Municipality of Dimos Thermis (administrator appl.) and is scheduled to be completed by the end of summer 2019 [...] Εμφάνιση λιγότερων

SeaLoc project aims in developing an integrated forecasting system with accompanying services for the Greek seas. Further development, however, can facilitate the whole Mediterranean region. It will provide interaction both with specialists as well as with everyday users through the internet and specialized applications, whose output will be in a format ready to be utilized by relevant target groups. The specialized applications will focus on identified needs of each target group, providing… Εμφάνιση περισσότερων

SeaLoc project aims in developing an integrated forecasting system with accompanying services for the Greek seas. Further development, however, can facilitate the whole Mediterranean region. It will provide interaction both with specialists as well as with everyday users through the internet and specialized applications, whose output will be in a format ready to be utilized by relevant target groups. The specialized applications will focus on identified needs of each target group, providing easy-to-comprehend thematic indices alongside the actual forecasts. The system consists of in-house wind and wave predictions as well as other crucial Copernicus Marine products (currents, salinity, SST, nitrate, plankton and dissolved oxygen). The great impact of the project derives from the fact that it combines current forecasting research developments along with available Copernicus Marine data/ services in an effort to bridge the gap between science and end-users. Additionally, the high spatial and temporal resolution in selected areas of marine-dependent financial importance, make SeaLoc a great decision-support tool towards local development and financial growth. Sectors than can benefit from such a tool are: coastal and marine tourism, fishing, aquaculture, shipping, coastal constructions, energy harvesting and others. Εμφάνιση λιγότερων

Stone hand-built terraces for agriculture constitute an important and inseparable element of the Mediterranean landscape, both natural and cultural. Although the main raison-d’être for building them was to supply the Mediterranean man with land to cultivate, they are importantly related to more than that: water economy, habitat and species diversity, as well as the diachronically typical Mediterranean landscape. This study is part of a broader research project on the role of terraces for the… Εμφάνιση περισσότερων

Stone hand-built terraces for agriculture constitute an important and inseparable element of the Mediterranean landscape, both natural and cultural. Although the main raison-d’être for building them was to supply the Mediterranean man with land to cultivate, they are importantly related to more than that: water economy, habitat and species diversity, as well as the diachronically typical Mediterranean landscape. This study is part of a broader research project on the role of terraces for the future of the islands of Dodecanese, Greece, in relation to economy, ecology and civilization. In this particular paper we focus on Nisyros, a very interesting island because of its geology, intense rural character in the past, isolation from the mainland, as well as density of terracing all over the island. In particular we investigate: 1. the types of physical landscapes that Nysirians used for terracing among all naturally available, 2. the extent of terracing, and finally, 3. the reasons of terrace abandonment and collapse. For our purposes we used GIS methods extensively, which we combined with more conventional methodologies, e.g. questionnaires and non-spatial data analyses. Our data show that despite of the very difficult island relief (the whole island is a volcano), a great percentage of the island surface still remains terraced; most probably it has been more extensively terraced in the past. Seventy-five percent of the island is loosely covered by terraces, whereas the total surface actually covered with terraces comes up to 58.4%. The island is terraced up to altitudes as high as 650 m, inclinations up to 55%, whereas all exposure types are equally covered. Since the beginning of the 20th century the island has undergone a very heavy demographic loss, always due to migration for different reasons. This decline took place in three distinct cycles: just after 1912, just before World War II (1936 onwards), and between 50s-80s. Εμφάνιση λιγότερων