Environmental planning, management and policies

EMAS (Eco-Management and Audit Scheme) is European Voluntary environmental management tool designed to support organizations to improve their environmental performance. Under the BRAVER (LIFE15 ENV/IT/000509 which is co funded from the EU), an effort to identify, develop and testing of effective measures for better regulation has been done. In the field testing of the “better regulation” proposals were assessment regarding their feasibility and their cost effective for both organizations and institutions / authorities. A total number of 35 proposed measures were tested, which most of them concerned economic and financial relief, public procurement, reduced inspections and funding support. Six of them already successfully adopted in the legislative framework of participating EU Member States, especially at regional level. Specifically, 4 measures adopted in Spain (2 in Catalonia; 2 in the Basque Country), 2 in Italy (Emilia – Romagna Region), 1 in Slovenia (national level) and 1 in Cyprus. Regardless the regulatory relief measures and incentives for EMAS organizations which have been adopted in the legislative framework, it’s also very important to determine the key performance indicator that an organization must set to monitor and control in order to achieved their goals. Key performance indicators define a set of values against which to measure and based on which evaluate the success of an organization or of a particular activity in which it engages.

Thursday
Poster presentation in Environmental planning, management and policies

The marine area of the Inner Ionian Sea and the Corinthian Gulf was studied in terms of MSP in the framework of the SUPREME EU project, which was undertaken by the Ministry for the Environment and Energy, with the collaboration of NTUA, UTh and NKUA.
Key task of the project was all countries participating in the project (Italy, Greece, Croatia, Slovenia) to perform analysis and maritime spatial planning at the national level.
The lessons learnt from this project, and especially from the study of the Inner Ionian Sea-Corinthian Gulf, showed that, in order to perform efficient MSP, Greece should advance: the engagement of the maritime regime and stakeholders in governance schemes, the wise managment of the geo-spatial data, the consideration of the transboundary nature of the sea and of the land-sea interactions.

Session: 54, Room: F, at Sat, 09/07/2019 - 15:45 to 16:00
Oral presentation in Environmental planning, management and policies

African drylands are a key source forage for pastoral livestock herds. However, land degradation and recurrent droughts have resulted to shrinkage of natural grazing pastures. This poses the greatest challenge to livestock production in African drylands. Combining innovative sustainable land management practices notably rainwater harvesting from roads and grass seeding using native grasses have been identified as a viable option for increased pasture production and rehabilitation of degraded pasturelands. Morpho-ecological characteristics of indigenous grasses Cenchrus ciliaris L. (African foxtail grass), Eragrostis superba Peyr. (Maasai love grass) and Enteropogon macrostachyus (Hochst. Ex A. Rich.) Monro ex Benth. (Wild rye grass) were planted to determine the suitability of rainwater harvesting from roads using trenches for pasture establishment and rehabilitation in a semi-arid landscape in Africa. Plant densities (plants m-2), plant frequency (%) and biomass yields (DM g m-2) significantly declined (P ˂0.05) with distance away from the water trenches (0 m, 5 m and 10 m). In conclusion, harvesting and diverting runoff from roads into trenches prolong soil moisture availability to enhance indigenous pasture production and rehabilitation of degraded grazing lands in African dryland environments.

Session: 54, Room: F, at Sat, 09/07/2019 - 16:12 to 16:15
Flash presentation in Environmental planning, management and policies

The combination of two or more forms of Renewable Energy Sources at the same spatial scale is a highly promising sector, resulting in an increase in the number of installations of hybrid RES systems. In Greece, where abundant resources such as wind and sun are available, the combination of these two renewable forms of energy can contribute to reducing dependence on conventional energy resources, as in hybrid power systems the weakness of a source is offset by the forces of the other. The purpose of this paper is the development of a methodology for selecting suitable sites for the installation of Hybrid Wind and Solar Energy Systems (HWSES) using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The implementation focuses on the island of Andros, Greece, and the proposed methodology includes the exclusion of areas defined by the Greek legislation and the international experience for both forms of energy. The site selection corresponds to a multi-dimensional process, which includes multiple criteria such as wind speed, solar radiation, distance from settlements, technical infrastructure, environmental and cultural interest and slope. Finally, the areas occupied by wind and solar farms in different licensing stages are excluded from the areas that are available for HWSES siting.

Session: 54, Room: F, at Sat, 09/07/2019 - 15:15 to 15:30
Oral presentation in Environmental planning, management and policies

Malaria is one of the major causes of mortality in the world today. Sub-Saharan African countries suffer most acutely from outbreaks of the disease and some 90% of cases of death (hundreds of thousands of people each year) occur in this region. High intensity rainfall is a central parameter leading to severe outbreaks of the disease, which typically lag the rain event by several weeks. However, current rainfall monitoring tools deployed in Africa do not provide sufficient response due to very limited spread in the continent.
During the last dozen years, the ability to monitor rain using microwave communication networks has been demonstrated. However, the tens of research papers published thus far have shown the contribution of the method mainly for hydro-meteorological needs.
This note points to the potential of microwave communication networks for providing rainfall information critically required to predict malaria outbreaks and to support planning of preventive measures.

Session: 54, Room: F, at Sat, 09/07/2019 - 15:30 to 15:45
Oral presentation in Environmental planning, management and policies

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 sub-urban 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.

Session: 54, Room: F, at Sat, 09/07/2019 - 16:09 to 16:12
Flash presentation in Environmental planning, management and policies

The European Union Emission Trading System (EU ETS) is the world’s largest cap-and-trade system. The observed price instabilities and the oversupply of the allowances are two characteristics that affect the objectives and the efficiency of the policy. In this article, we investigate the impact of storing allowances, i.e. banking, in terms of the price level, transaction volume and importance in the underlying trading network. To that end, we used data from the EU Transaction Log (EUTL) until 2014 in conjunction with a variety of important price determinants. Using a sectoral analysis through the years, we observe that the regulated actors’ participation increases in the transaction network, in contrast to the purely financial actors that exhibit an opposite trend. Furthermore, we quantify the relationship between banking and the carbon price by applying multiple regression on the price, considering many possible price determinants, both financial and EU ETS systemic in nature. We claim that after considering these factors, banking is a notable price determinant. Finally, we examine the network of transactions of allowances with respect to the role of financial and regulated nodes. We identify the intermediary role of financial nodes from their significance in the network structure.

Session: 48, Room: F, at Sat, 09/07/2019 - 13:00 to 13:15
Oral presentation in Environmental planning, management and policies

Wind power is one of the most environmentally friendly Renewable Energy Sources, as well as one of the rapidly growing and economically viable forms of renewable energy. Today's wind turbines can be considered as a mature and cost-effective technology with reasonable efficiency rates and high reliability. The aim of this paper is to identify the appropriate areas for onshore wind farm siting, considering the restrictions imposed by the national (Greek) institutional framework for wind farm siting (Special Framework for Spatial Planning and Sustainable Development for renewable energy sources / SFSPSD-RES) as well as several exclusion criteria found in the international literature. Wind velocity, slope, distances from specific areas (e.g. protected areas, settlements, monasteries, surface waters, mines) as well as from specific infrastructures (e.g. road network, electricity grid, antennas) are considered as exclusion criteria used in defining sustainable sites for wind farm deployment. The proposed methodology is applied in the Municipality of Aristotle in Chalkidiki – Greece and the main tool used in the analysis is Geographic Information System. The ownership status as well as the energy carrying capacity of the selected sites are further investigated.

Session: 54, Room: F, at Sat, 09/07/2019 - 15:00 to 15:15
Oral presentation in Environmental planning, management and policies

Waste Management strategies as a result of the production and consumption line (not cycle) are on the top of the global challenges, within the framework of the seventeen United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Based on the World Bank projections, the global waste generation levels have been increasing in a steady rate from 1.3 billion tonnes per year in 2012, to 2.2 billion tonnes per year by 2025. This represents a significant increase in per capita waste generation rates, from 1.2 to 1.42 kg per person of which <5% is managed sustainably. This paper aims to provide a holistic approach for the role of volunteers in providing means and strategies against the illegal solid waste disposal and highlighting a series of steps for their application towards impactful campaigns. The latest approaches of volunteerism towards waste management in regards to quantifying the economic, social and environmental value of a strategy are presented and discussed.

Session: 54, Room: F, at Sat, 09/07/2019 - 16:06 to 16:09
Flash presentation in Environmental planning, management and policies

This paper studies the way in which modern land-forest map design contributes to the protection of urban forests generally and the Seich Sou urban forest of Thessaloniki in particular. We also examine the role of cadastre and forest maps in protecting urban forests from abuses such as pressure for housing, which are particularly acute due to their proximity to urban centers. Particular emphasis is given to the Seich Sou urban forest, which provides important protection from erosion and pollution to the city of Thessaloniki. Thessaloniki is characterized by a low proportion of green areas per inhabitant and a high pollution burden. The history of the forest, its ownership status, its legal framework of protection, the problems it faces, as well as the role of the cadastre and forest maps in their resolution are presented. Finally, we conclude by proposing ways of strengthening the protective framework governing Seich Sou, as well as the urban forests of the country in general. The rational management of urban forests via the development of good forest policy with tools such as cadastre and forest maps can be the key to protecting urban forests effectively and exploiting their multiple benefits in perpetuity.

Session: 54, Room: F, at Sat, 09/07/2019 - 16:03 to 16:06
Flash presentation in Environmental planning, management and policies

Sustainability is a very important issue for universities. This situation concerning with size of area that they have, number of students, academicians, administrative staff, their excessive consumption of energy and materials. Related to these conditions, Universities have big impacts on environment and nature either explicit or implicit. Certain leading universities have performed comprehensive projects to develop sustainability of the campuses. To understand and assess the efficient sustainability of campuses and universities, lots of evaluation tools have been improved. In this research, Green Metric Index has been used which was developed by Indonesia University (UI) in 2010. This model is one of the most used in the world and evaluates the sustainability of the campuses. This tool uses six main criteria: Setting and Infrastructure (SI), Energy and Climate Change (EC), Waste (WS), Water (WR), Transportation (TR) and Education (ED). Several indicators describe each of the six main categories and these define the significant issues of sustainability. In this paper with the use of observational analyses, Konuralp Campus of Düzce University has been evaluated with using Green Metric Index in terms of Sustainable Campus. In consequence of the research, positive and negative conditions in terms of Green Metrics have been determined and provided suggestions have been developed.

Session: 48, Room: F, at Sat, 09/07/2019 - 12:45 to 13:00
Oral presentation in Environmental planning, management and policies

People are consuming the nature's products and services because all people act on earth. The concept of ecological footprint is accepted as an important indicator of sustainable life issue and calculating human impact on nature. Education should be started from the relevant part of the society which are the natural science students in order to enable people to realize the negative effects they have on nature and to direct them to reduce their ecological footprints. Educators and youngsters working in the field of natural sciences, adopting sustainable living principles as a way of life, are accepted as the most effective stakeholders creating environmental awareness and understanding the importance of the subject. In this study, ecological footprints were calculated and evaluated according to the consciousness and consumption habits of Düzce University forestry faculty landscape architecture and forest engineering students. In the study, ecological footprint calculation questionnaire was used as the data collection tool. Full counting method was used in the data collection stage. A questionnaire was applied to the students. Descriptive and descriptive statistical methods were used to analyze the data. As a result of the calculations, suggestions were made to reduce ecological footprint averages and to increase environmental awareness.

Session: 48, Room: F, at Sat, 09/07/2019 - 12:30 to 12:45
Oral presentation in Environmental planning, management and policies

The paper focuses on emerging (bio-) chemical techniques used to improve engineering properties of two problematic earthwork materials of the UK rail network to address transport earthwork infrastructure resilience in view of climate change. Studied techniques include novel cementing agents (e.g. alkali-activated cements), and/or soil cementation through calcite precipitation mediated by screened and isolated non-pathogenic indigenous bacteria, enhanced by bioaugmentation and electrokinetic treatment. The proposed treatments were evaluated based on unconfined compressive strength (UCS). For the ash, regular cement gave the best results however the feasibility of using alternative stabilisers merits further study. UCS and CaCO3 measurements proved biocementation of peat for a number of treatment combinations. Electrokinetic treatment enhanced the strength of the peat. Ongoing work is carried out to optimise treatments and implementation methods towards the upscaling of the techniques.

Session: 48, Room: F, at Sat, 09/07/2019 - 12:00 to 12:15
Oral presentation in Environmental planning, management and policies

Intense and varying environmental challenges have become one of the most pressuring goals that contemporary cities struggle to meet. Climate change, excessive urbanization and fragmentation of space are just some of the issues that contemporary cities are called to respond to. Thus, finding an effective approach to improve the quality of urban areas has proved crucial to cities all around the world. Green Infrastructure (GI) practices emerge as a key measure for cities that seek to increase their resilience to climate change and provide a quality place for people. Through strategic spatial planning, GI can be considered as one of the most appropriate multi-faceted approaches to reciprocate to a constantly changing urban landscape. In the metropolitan area of Thessaloniki there has been no GI planning so far. However, existing and prospective green, open and natural areas can play a catalytic role in the development of a GI network. To address this gap, the paper presents the methodology used for the development of a strategic spatial planning approach for GI in the metropolitan area of Thessaloniki.

Session: 48, Room: F, at Sat, 09/07/2019 - 12:15 to 12:30
Oral presentation in Environmental planning, management and policies

The natural and cultural heritage, peculiar and living cultures are great tourist attraction. The intensive and inefficient management of tourism and the association with this development can damage the nature, integrity and the dominant characteristics of these. In this way the ecological structure, cultural features and life style of the host community can also be degraded, as is the experience of the visitor in this place. The architecture of tourism in Greece is “pressed” by overexploitation and the need to offer more and more benefits and amenities. It is therefore necessary to search for and formulate a new architectural example. An architecture that will look for the “less” form, the unintentional materiality and will aim at the minimal (environmental) footprint.
The purpose of this lecture is to underline that the relevant legislation for the protection of sites, buildings and residential complexes did not have the expected results. The architecture of tourism in Greece, the morphological integration of new buildings into traditional architectural ensembles, overexploitation of natural resources and the alteration of the environment lead to the distortion of the truth about the concept of authentic and truly traditional architecture. The subject approach will be made through the presentation of examples.

Session: 48, Room: F, at Sat, 09/07/2019 - 11:45 to 12:00
Oral presentation in Environmental planning, management and policies

All infrastructure projects generate significant effects on the environment and their surrounding communities, but to varying degrees depending on their nature, scale and context. The environmental impact assessment process, despite its title, attempts to assess the social effects of projects alongside environmental impacts.
However, EIAs are often undertaken after the overall scope of the project has been settled. Strategic environmental assessment (SEA), on the other hand, is a framework for ensuring that environmental and sustainability impacts are integrated into high-level government policy, planning and programme making, and provides a systematic process that is aimed at bringing up-to-date scientific methods to environmental assessments.
Major infrastructure projects lie somewhere in between, because they often have impacts at a wide range of scales, and often visit their benefits and adverse impacts unequally to different communities and other stakeholder groups.
This paper examines the challenge of optimising geographical and temporal boundaries for the overall framing of infrastructure projects with the objective of minimising the significant adverse impacts and the number of people affected, and maximising the benefits to the greatest number of people. It concludes with comment on how science & technology might help support this process.

Session: 48, Room: F, at Sat, 09/07/2019 - 11:30 to 11:45
Oral presentation in Environmental planning, management and policies

The inter-Andean valley of Cauca River (IVCR) is one of the most industrialized regions in Colombia leading its seasonally dry tropical forest (SDTF) to a fragmented and degraded state. Changes in land cover may alter the climatic and hydrological patterns. In the period 1984 – 2014, 26% of natural areas detected remotely at IVCR have persisted in a sugarcane matrix. However, IVCR species composition and its ecological status are unknown. After reviewing several datasets, 1725 plant species were compiled. Using a modelling approach, habitat suitability was predicted with a maximum entropy algorithm implemented in Biomod2 R-Package for 14 prioritized plant species. Models were produced using as predictors, the variables selected with their Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) and for those selected with a Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Although the selected variables differed between VIF and PCA, the geographic space predicted to be suitable for the species were similar. VIF and PCA variables strongly reflect the temperature and precipitation under warm and wet periods and their seasonality. These models will help to estimate the potential restoration of SDTF at the ICVR and its vulnerability to climate change. This information will contribute to planning effectively the IVCR landscape for the future.

Session: 42, Room: F, at Sat, 09/07/2019 - 09:15 to 09:30
Oral presentation in Environmental planning, management and policies

Caramoan is a municipality located in the far eastern end of Camarines Sur in the region of Bicol, Philippines. The islands of Caramoan has been the site of several editions of the international reality TV show Survivor since 2008. After being featured in the show, its popularity spread like wildfire and the volume of tourist visitors escalated. The tourism industry boosted the municipality’s economy and brought income generating opportunities to its communities. Changes in the physical, environmental and social dynamics became noticeable over the years. Resorts were intensively built in shorelines, farmers shifted to tourism-related business and services and problems on waste management emerged. The worsening problem on wastes became the most challenging in one community of the municipality. This study was conducted to assess the waste management of the community and how it affects the coastal water quality. Results showed that the community and tourists gave high importance on proper waste management but the local government unit showed weak policy implementation. As an additional validation, coastal water quality tests on DO, BOD, pH, TC and TFC were done for two distinct seasons. Results showed that water is still within the standards of the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) – DENR, Philippines.

Session: 42, Room: F, at Sat, 09/07/2019 - 09:45 to 10:00
Oral presentation in Environmental planning, management and policies

Vast amounts of natural gas (NG) are consumed around the world everyday that are mainly transported and distributed through pipelines. Integrity of these pipelines is of primary interest to NG companies, consultants, governmental agencies, consumers and other stakeholder due to adverse consequences and heavy financial losses in case of system failure. Fault tree analysis (FTA) and event tree analysis (ETA) are two graphical techniques used to perform risk analysis, where FTA represents causes (likelihood) and ETA represents consequences of a failure event. 'Bow-tie' is an approach that integrates a fault tree (on the left side) and an event tree (on the right side) to represent causes, threat (hazards) and consequences in a common platform. The present study aims to help owners of transmission and distribution pipeline companies in risk management and decision-making to consider multi-dimensional consequences that may arise from natural gas pipeline failures.

Session: 42, Room: F, at Sat, 09/07/2019 - 09:30 to 09:45
Oral presentation in Environmental planning, management and policies

Wildfires continue to form a major disturbance factor in Mediterranean ecosystems, often associated with significant loss of properties and human lives. Fast detection and suppression within the first minutes after ignition constitute one of the pillars for successful wildfire management and prevention of its catastrophic consequences. The current study aims to develop a Fire Ignition Probability Index (IPI) which will be integrated in an automatic fire detection system composed by optical and thermal land cameras and UAV. The IPI index will be calculated based on the pyric history, the anthropogenic influence and the simulated fire behavior in a study areas in Southern Greece. The pyric history will be represented by point data and through a Kernel Density Estimation will calculate a risk factor. The anthropogenic influence will be estimated based on an inverse relationship with the Euclidean distance from roads and settlements. Finally, fire behavior will be calculated using fire simulation models and data on fuel properties, estimated using state of the art remote sensing methods and field data. The integration of the IPI in the automatic fire detection system is expected to form a significant contribution to its improved accuracy.

Session: 54, Room: F, at Sat, 09/07/2019 - 16:00 to 16:03
Flash presentation in Environmental planning, management and policies

The prefecture of Preveza is an area that has been an ideal place to live because there are the fields (are necessary for cultivation), the mountains (important for safe landscape), the rivers (are necessary for drinking water and watering the fields) and the sea (for trade and fishing). Such a landscape is formed between Acheron river and Louros river and their tributaries. Ιn this article we will talk about two fortified settlements near Louros river and its tributary: the castle of Rizobouni and the Kastle of Rogon. These castles are fortified settlements of antiquity and grew again in the Byzantine era and the Ottoman period. The natural environment was an important factor for the selection of these places and their continuous habitation up to the Ottoman conquest. The aim of the article is to present the ancient remains in combination with the natural landscape, to protect the antiquities and the environment, to promote tourism development without altering the environment, looking for environmental management and policies and the environmental impacts of tourism without proper organization

Session: 42, Room: F, at Sat, 09/07/2019 - 10:00 to 10:15
Oral presentation in Environmental planning, management and policies

The area of the prefecture of Thesprotia was conquered by the Ottomans before Constantinople and the final decline of Byzantium. There are fortified sites built after the Ottoman conquest in accordance with the new techniques and requirements of the era. There are also fortified places that were walled in antiquity and continued to be inhabited throughout the Ottoman period. The choice of location had, among other reasons, natural causes such as physical protection, proximity to a river and the relationship of the settlement with the surrounding area. The aim of the work is to present the Ottoman fortifications of Thesprotia (for example: the castle of Margariti, the castle of Igoumenitsa, the castle of Paramythia and the fortificated site of O(ouz)sdina in Thesprotia and their relation to the natural environment as well as the possibility of a good tourist promotion

Session: 42, Room: F, at Sat, 09/07/2019 - 10:15 to 10:18
Flash presentation in Environmental planning, management and policies

Rhodes Island, located in the southeastern Aegean Archipelagos. Coastal areas, extended sandy beaches, people’s hospitality, and adequate infrastructure are principal factors that have increased the touristic value of the island. The estimation of the Coastal Vulnerability Index is important, since coastal environments play an important role for the tourist decision. Coastal systems are the most sensitive in environmental changes. In this study CVI is used, in order to indicate the most vulnerable areas, through the interpretation and the calculation of various parameters. The data for the calculation of the CVI were mainly geomorphological, as long as fieldwork and laboratory analysis. The data were interpreted through GIS platform. GIS environment contributes to the simultaneous processing of all these data, the representation of the spatial distribution of these parameters, and finally to depict of the most vulnerable areas. Thus, these results will contribute to the most suitable, sustainable solutions for the decision making authorities.

Session: 42, Room: F, at Sat, 09/07/2019 - 10:18 to 10:21
Flash presentation in Environmental planning, management and policies

The deployment of offshore wind power technologies is becoming increasingly important towards the sustainable development of regions. In Greece, wind energy is provided at the time being, only by onshore plants and the interest in investigating the top choices for offshore wind applications in terms of environmental, economic, social and technical criteria is rapidly growing. The aim of this paper is to investigate the most appropriate sites for offshore windfarm siting in swallow waters (water depth ≤50m), where it is economically or/and technologically feasible to have structures resting directly on the seabed to support the turbine structure, taking advantage the existing knowledge as well as the technical experience of such applications. The proposed methodology includes two distinct stages (exclusion and evaluation) and integrates Geographical Information System (GIS) and Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method for solving spatial and policy planning problems. Thirteen exclusion criteria (e.g. wind velocity, distance from electricity grid, distance from residential network) and six assessment criteria (e.g. electricity energy production, distance from marine protected areas) are considered in the analysis. The results reveal five sites in swallow waters for offshore windfarm siting that could contribute to the energy interdependency of many areas.

Session: 42, Room: F, at Sat, 09/07/2019 - 09:00 to 09:15
Oral presentation in Environmental planning, management and policies

Heat maps show the heat and cold demand of residential, commercial and industrial buildings as well as the waste heat from industry. They combine these two aspects in order to plan new heating/cooling networks. By planning the thermal energy supply in a central way, the efficiency of the energy production and the overall exergy rate are also increased. The paper will present the methods of modern web-based heat mapping with a user oriented interface in the example of Saarland region, Germany. An overview of the heat demand survey including development of building and settlement typology by clustering as a base of the heat mapping will be given.

Session: 48, Room: F, at Sat, 09/07/2019 - 13:15 to 13:30
Oral presentation in Environmental planning, management and policies