Measuring the Accuracy and Precision of the Garmin GPS Positioning in Forested Areas: A Case Study in Taxiarchis-Vrastama University Forest

In this paper, it is attempted to examine and compare the performance of two (global positioning system) receivers of different orientation, one recreational and another more precise, in forested areas. In doing this, a field test on horizontal and vertical positional errors of GPS positioning at different points in the forested area of Taxiarchis-Vrastama University forest was conducted. The two GPS receivers were used to determine the positional accuracy of a selected number of points under tree canopies. Specifically, the precision and accuracy of Garmin’s GPS positioning at different points were calculated and compared with the corresponding positioning and accuracy of another GPS system, namely the TOPCON GPS. By the calculation of various measures of accuracy and precision suitable for GPS receivers and the use of statistical methods, accuracy between the different receivers differed significantly is shown. Also, regression analysis revealed that the basal area and the number of available satellites are the most important factors for predicting position error

Synthesis of earthquake ground motions for the new madrid seismic zone

M.S.Committee Chair: Glenn J. Ri

Forest road network planning for biomass exploitation and fire preventions: a least cost path analysis

The projects related to forest opening up constitute fundamental infrastructure projects for the development of our mountainous and semi-mountainous national economy. In the beginning, timber transportation and connection between forest settlements served as the sole purpose of forest opening up. However, nowadays, the perspective of forest opening up as being an important preventive measure of forest protection, which is a basic pillar of a multipurpose forestry system of the Greek Mediterranean mountains, is gaining ground. The application of modern tools in the opening up is now imperative for choosing the most economical and efficient forestry route. The paper presents a method of opening up roads in the forest, using the least cost path analysis (LCPA) and Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA) in a Geographical Information Systems (GIS) environment

Evaluation of means and methods of forest cadastre's implementation

Τhe aim of the thesis is to evaluate the means and methods of Forest cadastre’s implementation of the most simple to the most advanced with the assistance of PC as required by the modern socio-economic and natural conditions of the Greek reality. The suggested methods are: - Classical Topographical method or direct surveying. - Photogrammetrical method or indirect surveying. In the present thesis we are going to deal with the analytical and the digital photogrammetrical surveying method. During the surveying of the research areas, several phases of the work were timed by a JUNG HANS stopwatch. As regards the implementation of the Topographical method we reached the following conclusions: - The time needed to perform of the areas’ surveying is a significant drawback. - As we saw above, the rural-forest performance is higher than the forest area one because we can cover larger area with only one instrument stop. - The factor that affects predominantly the time of surveying is the form of coverage of the surface of the earth. After that follows the topography of the area, the slope distance and to a lesser extent the size of the slope. The effect of these factors on the performance of the cadastral survey map of a region with the topographical method is particularly obvious. - In terms of errors in the implementation of surveying works the mixed region presents significantly lower errors and therefore higher precision than the pure forest. As regards the implementation of the analytical method we concluded to the following: - While in the Topographical method the primary data are the angles and the distances in the field, the analytical photogrammetrical method is processing the coordinates at the photographical level, i.e. we perform measurements from a distance. - It collaborates with a PC and so it can process a big information data. - With the creation of the digital terrain model we can have a database for further use and processing. - For the implementation of the method specialized staff is needed, not only for the handling of the analytical instrument, but also with advanced knowledge of Photogrammetry. This is not necessary for the classical method. We concluded to the following regarding to the digital method implementation: - Automation of all operations and wide availability of storage and data processing. - The connection with other databases and storage of any other information beyond the coordinates is possible. - The best in accuracy and quality cadastral map is created. Similarly, the DTM created by the digital method is more accurate and is produced within a shorter period in relation to the DTM resulting from the analytical method. Also is created sooner than the DTM the resulting from classical (Topographical) method.Σκοπός της Διατριβής είναι η αξιολόγηση των μέσων και μεθόδων για την κατάρτιση του Δασικού Κτηματολογίου από τα πιο απλά ως τα πιο προηγμένα με την συνδρομή Η/Υ όπως επιτάσσουν οι σύγχρονες κοινωνικοοικονομικές και φυσικές συνθήκες της Ελληνικής πραγματικότητας. Οι προτεινόμενες μεθοδολογίες είναι: - Κλασσική τοπογραφική μέθοδος ή άμεση αποτύπωση. - Φωτογραμμετρική μέθοδος ή έμμεση αποτύπωση. Στη διατριβή θα ασχοληθούμε με την αναλυτική και την ψηφιακή φωτογραμμετρική μέθοδο αποτύπωσης. Κατά την αποτύπωση των περιοχών έρευνας, χρονομετρήθηκαν οι διάφορες φάσεις εργασίας των μεθόδων με χρονόμετρο τύπου JUNG HANS. Όσον αφορά την εφαρμογή της Τοπογραφικής μεθόδου καταλήξαμε στα εξής: - Σημαντικό μειονέκτημα αποτελεί ο χρόνος για την εκτέλεση της αποτύπωσης των περιοχών. - Η απόδοση όπως είδαμε για περιοχές αγροτοδασικές είναι μεγαλύτερη από την απόδοση σε περιοχές δασικές γιατί μπορούμε με μία στάση του οργάνου να καλύψουμε μεγαλύτερη περιοχή. - Ο παράγοντας που επηρεάζει κατά κύριο λόγο το χρόνο αποτύπωσης είναι η μορφή της κάλυψης της επιφάνειας της γης. Μετά ακολουθεί η μορφολογία της περιοχής, η κεκλιμένη απόσταση και σε μικρότερο ποσοστό το μέγεθος της κλίσης. Η επίδραση αυτών των παραγόντων στην απόδοση του κτηματικού χάρτη μίας περιοχής με την τοπογραφική μέθοδο είναι ιδιαίτερα εμφανής. - Από πλευράς σφαλμάτων κατά την εκτέλεση των τοπογραφικών εργασιών η μικτή περιοχή παρουσιάζει σαφώς μικρότερα σφάλματα και επομένως μεγαλύτερη ακρίβεια από την αμιγώς δασική. Όσον αφορά την εφαρμογή της αναλυτικής μεθόδου καταλήξαμε στα εξής: - Ενώ στην Τοπογραφική μέθοδο τα πρωτογενή στοιχεία είναι οι γωνίες και οι αποστάσεις στο πεδίο, η αναλυτική φωτογραμμετρική επεξεργάζεται συντεταγμένες στο φωτογραφικό επίπεδο,δηλ. να κάνουμε μετρήσεις από απόσταση. - Συνεργάζεται με Η/Υ και έτσι μπορεί να επεξεργαστεί ένα μεγάλο πακέτο πληροφοριών. - Με τη δημιουργία του ψηφιακού μοντέλου εδάφους μπορούμε να έχουμε μία βάση δεδομένων για περαιτέρω χρήση και επεξεργασία. - Για την εφαρμογή της μεθόδου απαιτείται ειδικευμένο προσωπικό όχι μόνο στη χρήση του αναλυτικού μηχανήματος αλλά και με πολύ καλές γνώσεις φωτογραμμετρίας. Κάτι που δεν είναι απαραίτητο για την κλασσική μέθοδο. Όσον αφορά την εφαρμογή της ψηφιακής μεθόδου καταλήξαμε στα εξής: - Αυτοματοποίηση όλων των εργασιών και μεγάλη δυνατότητα αποθήκευσης και επεξεργασίας δεδομένων. - Είναι δυνατή η σύνδεση με άλλες βάσεις δεδομένων και αποθήκευση και άλλων πληροφοριών εκτός από τις συντεταγμένες. - Σε σχέση με την αναλυτική φωτογραμμετρική μέθοδο είναι πολύ πιο ακριβής και πιο γρήγορη ενώ σε σχέση με την τοπογραφική είναι πολύ πιο γρήγορη. - Δημιουργείται ο καλύτερος σε πιστότητα και ποιότητα κτηματικός χάρτης. Ομοίως και το Ψ.Μ.Ε. που δημιουργείται με την ψηφιακή μέθοδο είναι πιο ακριβές και παράγεται σε μικρότερο χρονικό διάστημα σε σχέση με το Ψ.Μ.Ε. που προκύπτει από την αναλυτική μέθοδο. Επίσης δημιουργείται πιο σύντομα σε σχέση με το Ψ.Μ.Ε. που προκύπτει από την κλασική (Τοπογραφική) μέθοδο

Informing Residents to Natural Disasters: the Case Study Results from Northern Evros, Greece

Abstract. Greece is a country which is often affected by catastrophic natural phenomena (especially forest fires, floods and earthquakes).The study aimed to identify the information provided to residents of Northern Evros, concerning natural disasters. Primarily, residents were asked to express their opinion about the importance of recording their views via questionnaire and to evaluate natural disasters depending on their risk degree. Moreover, it was investigated whether the residents were informed for the recovering actions from a natural disaster, if they were aware about the role and the responsibilities of the Civil Protection Service and which sources of information they used. They were also asked about the way the information about the real size of a natural disaster should be formed by the media and the reason why scientists talked to the media after a catastrophic natural disaster. Furthermore, the views of the residents were analyzed regarding operations that would be done temporally, after a catastrophic risk for recovery and from which shared state services in their region, for every kind of natural disaster separately

An Investigation into the Possibility of Reusing Wastewater and Sludge on Soil Enriched with Humic Acid of Young Growing Seedlings of Cupressus Arizonica Greene

The influence of Humic acids (HA) in combination to Treated Municipal Waste Water (TMWW) and biological sludge (S) reuse was studied, for the characteristics of growth and metal accumulation in the forestal species Cupressus Arizonica Greene and soil characteristics. The experiment was held at the forestal seedbed of Agrinio at an experimental spacing of random groups containing 12 combinations of TMWW, S and HA plus control, in 4 replicates, meaning 12x4. The findings were: The interventions affected statistically significant the micronutrients capacity of Cu, Fe, Zn, and Mn of soil, leaves and roots. Humic acids raised significantly the availability of Cu and Zn micronutrients in the soil, but did not affect their concentrations in leaves and roots. The higher concentration of Cu and Zn in the leaves was found in the absence of humics with the intervention of E1 (control), while in the presence of humics with the intervention of E11 (Control+TMWW+200mg/kg HA). In the roots the higher concentration of Cu and Zn was achieved in the absence of humics with the intervention of E1 (control), while in the presence of humics with the intervention of E2 (Control+200mg/kg HA). Closing, in the soil, the highest concentration of Cu and Zn was observed in the absence of humics with the intervention of E10 (control+S), while in the presence of humics with the intervention of E8 (TMWW+S+200mg/kg HA)

Absorption of Europium chloride from zebrafish (Danio rerio) embryos under experimental conditions

Lanthanides (Ln) have an essential role in the pollution of the environment because of their ecotoxicity. The pollution of Ln significantly increased due to their use in industry and agriculture in the last decade. Europium (Eu) is the most reactive lanthanide by far. This metal is contained in many industries wastes and it may enter the food chain. The biochemical behavior of lanthanides has been extensively studied, but there are limited studies on Eu. It is remarkable that Ln react with biologically chemical compounds, affecting competitively and replacing the basic ions of the cell such as calcium (Ca2+) and magnesium (Mg2+). Based on the international literature, there are not much data on the toxic effects of Eu mainly on aquatic organisms. Exposure of zebrafish embryos to Europium indicated that the absorption of the metal from the embryos was taken place from the earliest stages of their development