The floods in Greece: the case of Mandra in Attica

Οι πλημμύρες είναι από τις συνηθέστερες φυσικές καταστροφές και εξαιρετικά επικίνδυνες σε παγκόσμια κλίμακα καθώς μπορούν να προκαλέσουν εκτεταμένες ζημιές σε περιουσίες και σε απώλεια ανθρώπινων ζωών. Σύμφωνα με πολλούς ειδικούς επιστήμονες, η αλλαγή του κλίματος έχει οδηγήσει στην αύξηση των πλημμυρικών φαινομένων τα τελευταία χρόνια παγκοσμίως, όπως και στην Ελλάδα. Στόχος της παρούσας εργασίας είναι να εξετάσει το πλημμυρικό γεγονός που έλαβε χώρα στις 14-15 Νοεμβρίου του 2017 στην περιοχή της Μάνδρας, Αττική (Ελλάδα). Η μέγιστη πλημμυρική παροχή των ρεμάτων Αγίας Αικατερίνης και Σούρες υπολογίσθηκε με τη χρήση της ορθολογικής μεθόδου (Giandotti) για περιόδους επαναφοράς ίσων με 10, 100 και 1000 έτη. Μελετήθηκαν τα χαρακτηριστικά των ρεμάτων και ερευνήθηκε η συμπεριφορά τους κατά τη διάρκεια της πλημμύρας. Αποδόθηκαν πολλές από τις συνέπειες στην ανθρώπινη παρέμβαση στις κοίτες των ρεμάτων.Floods are one of the most common natural disasters and are extremely dangerous in a global range since they can cause extensive damage to properties or losses in human lives. According to the opinion of many expert scientists, climate change has led to the increase of flooding phenomena over the last years worldwide, as well as in Greece. The aim of this paper is to examine the flooding event that occurred in Mandra area, Attica (Greece) on 14-15 November of 2017. The peak discharge of the Agia Ekaterini and Soures streams was calculated using the rational method (Giandotti) for return periods equal to 10, 100 and 1000 years. The stream characteristics were studied and their behavior during the flood was investigated. Many of the impacts were attributed to the human intervention in the streambeds

A severe coarctation of aorta in a 72-year-old female: a case report

Aortic coarctation is a congenital malformation of the aorta usually diagnosed and corrected early in life. Long-term survival is exceptional in patients with untreated aortic coarctation. In this case report, we present a late diagnosis of aortic coarctation in a 72-year-old female. Our patient was relatively asymptomatic until she presented with exertional dyspnea and fatigue in her seventh decade of life. The patient was managed conservatively with aggressive antihypertensive medication. After the 1-year follow-up visit, the patient was in good clinical condition, without, however, adequate control of blood pressure

A flexible multi-temporal and multi-modal framework for Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 analysis ready data

The rich, complementary data provided by Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 satellite constellations host considerable potential to transform Earth observation (EO) applications. However, a substantial amount of effort and infrastructure is still required for the generation of analysis-ready data (ARD) from the low-level products provided by the European Space Agency (ESA). Here, a flexible Python framework able to generate a range of consistent ARD aligned with the ESA-recommended processing pipeline is detailed. Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data are radiometrically calibrated, speckle-filtered and terrain-corrected, and Sentinel-2 multi-spectral data resampled in order to harmonise the spatial resolution between the two streams and to allow stacking with multiple scene classification masks. The global coverage and flexibility of the framework allows users to define a specific region of interest (ROI) and time window to create geo-referenced Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 images, or a combination of both with closest temporal alignment. The framework can be applied to any location and is user-centric and versatile in generating multi-modal and multi-temporal ARD. Finally, the framework handles automatically the inherent challenges in processing Sentinel data, such as boundary regions with missing values within Sentinel-1 and the filtering of Sentinel-2 scenes based on ROI cloud coverage

Coupling circularity performance and climate action : from disciplinary silos to transdisciplinary modelling science

Technological breakthroughs and policy measures targeting energy efficiency and clean energy alone will not suffice to deliver Paris Agreement-compliant greenhouse gas emissions trajectories in the next decades. Strong cases have recently been made for acknowledging the decarbonisation potential lying in transforming linear economic models into closed-loop industrial ecosystems and in shifting lifestyle patterns towards this direction. This perspective highlights the research capacity needed to inform on the role and potential of the circular economy for climate change mitigation and to enhance the scientific capabilities to quantitatively explore their synergies and trade-offs. This begins with establishing conceptual and methodological bridges amongst the relevant and currently fragmented research communities, thereby allowing an interdisciplinary integration and assessment of circularity, decarbonisation, and sustainable development. Following similar calls for science in support of climate action, a transdisciplinary scientific agenda is needed to co-create the goals and scientific processes underpinning the transition pathways towards a circular, net-zero economy with representatives from policy, industry, and civil society. Here, it is argued that such integration of disciplines, methods, and communities can then lead to new and/or structurally enhanced quantitative systems models that better represent critical industrial value chains, consumption patterns, and mitigation technologies. This will be a crucial advancement towards assessing the material implications of, and the contribution of enhanced circularity performance to, mitigation pathways that are compatible with the temperature goals of the Paris Agreement and the transition to a circular economy