Proposing a Governance model for environmental crises

During August 2021, a wildfire outbreak in Evia, Greece's second largest island, resulted in a major environmental and economic crisis. Apart from biodiversity and habitat loss, the disaster triggered a financial crisis because it wiped out wood-productive forests and outdoor areas that attract visitors. This crisis highlighted the need for a new governance model in order to respond to environmental crises more effectively. The aim of this study was to investigate the acceptance and attitudes of relevant stakeholders towards establishing a Hub a proposed governance model responsible for monitoring and restoring the natural capital and biodiversity after environmental crises. Results based on quantitative data collected via questionnaires showed that most respondents were positive to the Hub and perceived that its main functions should be to recommend measures after environmental crises and to facilitate cooperation among involved stakeholders. Moreover, results pointed to preferred funding sources, stakeholder groups that should participate in the Hub and key performance indicators (KPIs) for monitoring Hub's performance. The applied methodology could guide the establishment of governance models both in the study area and other countries facing environmental crises

ESTIMATION OF THE PREFECTURE OF EVROS VULNERABILITY IN FLOOD CASES USING GIS AND FUZZY SET ALGEBRA

ABSTRACT Topographical and climatic conditions in the Evro

Rise Time and Peak Current Measurement of ESD Current from Air Discharges with Uncertainty Calculation

The greater number of electrostatic discharges (ESDs) that occur in nature is by air rather than by contact. However, due to low reproducibility in the current of air discharges, the IEC 61000-4-2 defines that the current’s calibration of an ESD gun must be made only for contact discharges. In the work presented here, there is an attempt to improve the poor reproducibility of air discharges by a significant observation derived from ESD measurements and, more specifically, the relationship between the rise time and the peak current for every ESD gun. This fact validated in this paper from current measurements of two different ESD guns will help all who are involved in ESD measurements in EMC laboratories by reducing the existing uncertainty in measurements of air discharges

Risks in the European Transmission System and a Novel Restoration Strategy for a Power System after a Major Blackout

Many citizens of European countries may soon experience a long and extensive blackout. The lack of predictability in the output of renewable energy sources, aggravating the problem of consistently matching supply with demand on electric grids, along with cyber-attacks or even worse unpredictable incidents in the electric grid are some factors that may mean a blackout is much more likely than in previous years. This paper covers the possibility of an extensive blackout in a country of the interconnected European electricity transmission system or, even worse, a blackout in a wide area of the European continent. The topic of this paper becomes even more important and timely given the energy crisis due to the war in Ukraine, which has made the possibility of a blackout in the winter of 2022–2023 high. First, the major European blackouts that occurred in the past 20 years are presented, examining their causes. On 8 January 2021, the European electricity grid was divided into two separate sections, with different frequencies; some additional scenarios are considered which, if they had happened, could have led to blackouts in some European countries or, even worse, a wide area of Europe. This work also examines how to avoid such an eventuality, as well as how European TSOs should react in case a blackout occurs. Focused on the fast and reliable supply of consumers after a blackout, a novel restoration strategy based on the A* Algorithm is presented. Its efficiency is validated in the IEEE-39 and IEEE-68 bus systems

Assessing flash flood vulnerability using a multi-vulnerability approach

In the framework of flood risk assessment, while the understanding of hazard and exposure has significantly improved over the last years, knowledge on vulnerability remains one of the challenges. Current approaches in vulnerability research are characterised by a division between social scientists and natural scientists. In order to close this gap, we present an approach that combines information on physical and social vulnerability in order to merge information on the susceptibility of elements at risk and society. With respect to physical vulnerability, the study is based on local-scale vulnerability models using nonlinear regression approaches. Modified Weibull distributions were fit to the data in order to represent the relationship between process magnitude and degree of loss. With respect to social vulnerability we conducted a door-to-door survey which resulted in particular insights on flood risk awareness and resilience strategies of exposed communities. In general, both physical and social vulnerability were low in comparison with other European studies, which may result from (a) specific building regulations in the four Mediterranean test sites as well as general design principles leading to low structural susceptibility of elements at risk, and (b) relatively low social vulnerability of citizens exposed. As a result it is shown that a combination of different perspectives of vulnerability will lead to a better understanding of exposure and capacities in flood risk management