A Decision Support System Web—Application for the Management of Forest Road Network

The present study contributes to the development of an online FRMP (Forest Road Management Platform) that aims to assist in the management of forest road network in a holistic way. This is achieved by the proposed methodology which serves as a database using geoprocessing and geospatial technologies for the handling, and the identification of critical issues in the infrastructure of forest road networks, visualization of forest roads, and the optimization of the management of the forest road network by proposing alternative strategies. In this paper, the development of the decision making web-tool, and presented examples to demonstrate effectively its application and resulting advantages are described. The developed web-application may provide assistance to various forest organizations in the management of forest road networks and associated problems in an effective and sustainable way

The usage and perception of pedestrian and cycling streets on residents’ well-being in Kalamaria, Greece

Pedestrian zones are public spaces intended for the continued and safe mobility of pedestrians and people with disabilities, and they provide multiple benefits to urban areas. They counterbalance the densely built-up areas, decrease atmospheric pollution, increase available green or social space, increase walking and cycling rates, and facilitate active play for children. Done properly, pedestrianization may also increase local business sales. Greece boasts open public spaces and the pedestrianization of common roads. The economic crisis that Greece has been experiencing since 2008 has led people to give up their vehicles and use the pedestrian streets more frequently. The purpose of this paper was to investigate residents’ perceptions and satisfaction rates concerning the pedestrian streets of Kalamaria, Greece, and evaluate their importance for residents’ well-being. Following a random sampling method, 400 residents were interviewed. A two-step cluster analysis was conducted. The survey showed that the urban residents visited pedestrian zones in Kalamaria at least once a week, and the visits lasted 46–60 min. The improvement of urban landscape aesthetics and people’s health and well-being were evaluated as important functions of pedestrian zones. The results also indicate that residents were not satisfied with their quality of life and the existing green infrastructures of the pedestrian streets, even though they have a positive disposition toward the construction or transformation of pedestrian streets. The residents expressed their unwillingness to pay more public taxes for the construction and maintenance of pedestrian and cycling streets. The safety and convenience of the mobility of residents were the most important advantages of the pedestrian streets. Meanwhile, overspill parking and difficulties with finding parking spaces were the main disadvantages for the residents. Local authorities can use the results of the present survey to manage the city’s green infrastructure and use this information in the urban planning framework.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The contribution of the road transport projects of the NSRF 2007-2013 to the development of a Greek region

The purpose of the present paper is to study how the actions of the road projects of National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) 2007-2013 contributed to the development of the Region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, as these actions were included in the respective Operational Program of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace 2007-2013. It analyzes the European regional policy, examines the cohesion policy of the European Union, which aims to reduce regional inequalities and ensure the social, economic and territorial cohesion. In Greece, the cohesion policy implementation for the period 2007-2013 was achieved through the NSRF 2007-2013, where the present study presents its training philosophy and the priorities set. The study area concerns the Region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, followed by the analysis, characteristics and results of the Operational Program of the Region of the same period, through which 87 road projects were implemented. Data are collected for each of these projects and, through the presented research methodology, conclusions are drawn on the contribution of these actions to the development of the Region

A quantitative analysis of the spatial and temporal evolution patterns of the bluetongue virus outbreak in the island of Lesvos, Greece in 2014

Bluetongue virus (BTV) causes an infectious disease called bluetongue, a vector-borne viral disease of ruminants, which has major implications and causes severe economic damage due to its effect on livestock. These economic costs are mostly ascribed to the trade restrictions imposed during the epidemic period. In August 2014, an epidemic of bluetongue occurred in the island of Lesvos, Greece. The epidemic was severe and evolved over time, lasting until December 2014. The total cases of infected farms were 490, including a total number of 136,368 small ruminants. In this paper, we describe a bluetongue virus serotype 4 (BTV-4) epidemic and utilize Bayesian epidemic models to capture the spatio-temporal spread of the disease. Our study provides important insights into the drivers of BTV transmission and has implications for designing control strategies. The results showed strong spatial autocorrelations, with BTV being more likely to spread between farms located nearby. The spatial modelling results proposed a certain spatial radius (~12 km) around the onset of a similar epidemic for imposing restrictions on animal movement, which can be sufficient for the control of the disease and limit economic damage

Attitudes and views of citizens regarding the contribution of the trail paths in protection and promotion of natural environment

In recent decades, large sections of trail paths throughout Greece have been maintained, revived, and marked, creating a wide network with a total length of approximately 3500 km. The trail paths are one of the main levers of tourism development as they contribute to the preservation, protection, and promotion of the countryside, cultural heritage, and tradition, to the more effective protection and management of areas of exceptional natural beauty and sensitive ecosystems with wildlife. This paper investigates the view of the citizens of the regional unit of Evros, Greece, on the contribution of the trail paths to the protection and promotion of the cultural and natural environment. The research was conducted with the use of a structured questionnaire and through personal interviews. The data were collected and analyzed with the use of descriptive statistical methods as well as multivariate analysis techniques. The results of the research show that the attitudes of citizens to the contribution of paths in the protection and promotion of the cultural and natural environment are directly or indirectly influenced by various factors. In particular, age directly affects the view of citizens towards the trail paths, with the younger ones having more positive views. Other important predictors of citizens’ views were the type of activity in the trail path, with citizens using them for leisure activities or using the easy roots having more positive views towards them

Mapping priority areas for apiculture development with the use of geographical information systems

Supporting local and central authorities in decision-making processes pertaining to environmental planning requires the adoption of scientific methods and the submission of proposals that could be implemented in practice. Taking into consideration the dual role that honeybees play as honey producers and crop pollinators, the aim of the present study is to identify and utilize a number of indicators and subsequently develop priority thematic maps. Previous research has focused on the determination of, and, on certain occasions, on mapping, priority areas for apiculture development, based mainly on the needs of honeybees, without taking into consideration the pollination needs of crops that are cultivated in these areas. In addition, research so far has been carried out in specific spatial entities, in contrast to the current study, in which the areas to be comparatively assessed are pre-chosen based on their geographical boundaries. The information derived from this process is expected to help decision-makers in local and regional authorities to adopt measures for optimal land use and sound pollination practices in order to enhance apiculture development at a local scale. To achieve this target, the study incorporates literature about the attractiveness of crops and plants to pollinating honeybees as well as the pollination services provided by honeybees, in combination with detailed vegetative land cover data. The local communities of each municipality were comparatively evaluated, by introducing three indicators through numerical and spatial data analysis: Relative Attractiveness Index (RAI), Relative Dependence Index (RDI), and Relative Priority Index (RPI). Based on these indicators, attractiveness, dependence, and priority maps were created and explained in detail. We suggest that a number of improvement measures that will boost pollination or honey production or both should be taken by decision-makers, based on the correlations between the aforementioned indicators and the exanimated areas. In addition, dependence maps can constitute a powerful tool for raising awareness among both the public and the farmers about the value of honeybees in pollination, thus reinforcing bee protection efforts undertaken globally. Attractiveness maps that provide a thorough picture of the areas that are sources of pollen and nectar can serve as a general guide for the establishment of hives in areas with high potential for beekeeping

A geographical information approach for forest maintenance operations with emphasis on the drainage infrastructure and culverts

Forest operations engineering deals with all the essential infrastructure operations aiming at the efficient management of forested areas, which constitutes a prerequisite for the development of mountainous economies. Thus, the need for addressing this objective in an effective way, in conjunction with other issues associated with the protection and preservation of forest wealth, is of utmost importance. There are a whole range of forest operations for which a decision-making web-tool can potentially be utilized. This paper introduces an online decision-making tool for managing forest roads, which uses information derived from rainfall-runoff simulation. The proposed tool can be used to provide information about forest works maintenance and damage prevention in a forest environment. Furthermore, the tool assists in visualizing forest operations and achieves the optimization of their management. The development of the decision-making tool is also described, and a real case study (the Koupa watershed) is presented in detail to demonstrate its application and resulting advantages. The rainfall-runoff simulation was conducted for ten sub-basins in order to evaluate the efficiency of the corresponding culverts in the Koupa watershed

Databases of forest road construction in the context of forest cadastral

Nowadays, the need for an even more integrated management approach of woodlands as well as the flexibility that a full road network offers against the prevention of risk of forest fires have led us to the completion of the opening of many woodlands. According to our point of view, compatibility and smooth access to all points of the road network throughout the year is a challenge as well as its proper management and organization for its maintenance. Building a unified database that will function as a platform for development in the area can be considered to be the cornerstone for the generation of a developmental plan. Such a plan will include the registration and production of an electronic database that consists of the basic elements of the property ownership and of the main characteristics of the forest road network and of the forest techniques applied so far.The present thesis can be divided into three distinct sections:The first section describes the production of a land registry database. The thesis focuses on three different areas of investigation in terms of both their topological and morphological characteristics as well as of their social and economic data. Towards this end, orthophotomaps of the year 1945 have been produced for areas where these were either lacking or whose precision was not sufficient enough for our purposes. For later years, existing orthophotomaps were used as their precision and visibility were deemed to be adequate. In this way, we have generated forest maps using single-photograph observation of the orthophotomaps, stereoscopic observation of aerial photographs as well as spot checks and autopsies. Forest maps of all three areas of investigation have been created. The second section seeks to address the process of registration and production of an integrated database that consists of road network data, such as the recording and classification of forest works and forest roads and their subsequent taxonomy in terms of the degree of access they offer. We believe that a modern view on this issue will offer a deeper analysis of the problem and will help us suggest a policy of maintenance on a systematic basis that will be organized around three main pillars: diagnosis-forecast-programming. The fully-integrated systems of maintenance usually consist of mathematical models that are equivalent to the three pillars mentioned above and they are used to manage and assess the data of a problem, be they technical, circulatory, financial leading to specific solutions necessary for the interventions that have to be made defining at the same time the time needed for the execution, the size, type and cost of the operations. Such a system was applied in two different areas of investigation, i.e. Lailia and Pilio. The third section presents the production of a 3-D interactive depiction of the area. The use of such an application software not only does it reproduce what is conventionally true, it also offers to the user the opportunity to create a synthetic reality, a synthetic environment. The key difference between this software and other related software programs is that the user is placed at the center of the activities and is organized based on the user’s sensations. It also provides us with the opportunity to create, manage and process 3-D image objects. The program has been produced on a pilot basis for one area of investigation, i.e. Lailia, in an effort to promote a developmental plan for this purely tourist area.Οι ανάγκες της σημερινή εποχή για αρτιότερη διαχείριση μιας δασικής έκτασης και η ευελιξία που προσφέρει ένα πλήρες οδικό δίκτυο στην πρόληψη του κινδύνου των πυρκαγιών μας οδήγησε στην ολοκλήρωση της διάνοιξης των περισσότερων δασικών περιοχών.Πλέον για μας πρόκληση αποτελεί η βατότητα και η απρόσκοπτη πρόσβαση σε κάθε σημείο του οδικού δικτύου καθ’ όλη την διάρκεια του έτους, η σωστή διαχείριση και η οργάνωση της συντήρησης τους. Η δημιουργία μιας ενιαίας βάσης δεδομένων η οποία θα αποτελέσει την πλατφόρμα ανάπτυξης της περιοχής αποτελούν πυλώνες αναπτυξιακού σχεδίου.Ενός σχεδίου που θα περιλαμβάνει τη καταγραφή και την δημιουργία μιας ηλεκτρονικής βάσης δεδομένων από το ιδιοκτησιακό μέχρι τα χαρακτηριστικά του δασικού οδικού δικτύου και των δασοτεχνικών έργων του.Η παρούσα εργασία θα μπορούσε να διαχωριστεί σε τρείς τομείς:Ο πρώτος τομέας περιγράφει τη δημιουργία βάσης κτηματολογικών δεδομένων. Η εργασία επικεντρώνεται σε τρείς διαφορετικές περιοχές έρευνας τόσο από άποψη τοπολογικών και μορφολογικών χαρακτηριστικών, όσο και κοινωνικών και οικονομικών δεδομένων. Για την επίτευξη του παραπάνω σκοπού παράχθηκαν ορθοφωτοχάρτες του έτους 1945 για περιοχές που είτε δεν υπήρχαν είτε η ακρίβειά τους δεν είναι αρκετή, ενώ για την πρόσφατη περίοδο χρησιμοποιήθηκαν οι ήδη υπάρχοντες ορθοφωτοχάρτες μιας και η ακρίβεια και η ευκρίνεια τους ήταν αρκετή. Κατ αυτόν τον τρόπο παράχθηκαν δασικοί χάρτες με μονοσκοπική παρατήρηση των ορθοφωτοχαρτών, στερεοσκοπική παρατήρηση των αεροφωτογραφιών , αλλά και με την βοήθεια επιτόπιων ελέγχων και αυτοψιών. Οι δασικοί χάρτες δημιουργήθηκαν και για τις τρείς περιοχές έρευνας.Ο δεύτερος τομέας αποσκοπεί στην καταγραφή και την δημιουργία μιας ολοκληρωμένης βάσης δεδομένων οδικού δικτύου, όπως η καταγραφή και η κατάταξη των δασικών έργων, η καταγραφή και η κατάταξη των δασικών δρόμων, και η κατάταξη της προσβασιμότητας τους. Μια σύγχρονη αντίληψη στο θέμα αυτό προχωρεί σε μια βαθύτερη ανάλυση του προβλήματος και προτείνει μια πολιτική συντήρησης σε συστηματική βάση που διαρθρώνεται γύρω από τρεις κύριους άξονες: διάγνωση - πρόγνωση - προγραμματισμός.Τα ολοκληρωμένα συστήματα συντήρησης περιέχουν μαθηματικά μοντέλα, αντίστοιχα προς τους άξονες που προαναφέρθηκαν, τα οποία διαχειρίζονται και αξιολογούν τα δεδομένα κάθε προβλήματος, τεχνικά, κυκλοφοριακά, οικονομικά και καταλήγουν σε συγκεκριμένες προτάσεις για τις απαιτούμενες επεμβάσεις, προσδιορίζοντας συγχρόνως τον χρόνο εκτέλεσης, το μέγεθος, το είδος και το κόστος των εργασιών. Εφαρμόστηκε σε δύο διαφορετικές περιοχές έρευνας το Λαϊλιά και το Πήλιο.Ο τρίτος τομέας περιλαμβάνει την δημιουργία μιας τρισδιάστατης διαδραστικής απεικόνισης μιας περιοχής Μιας εφαρμογής η οποία δεν αναπαράγει απλά τη συμβατική πραγματικότητα, αλλά δίνει τη δυνατότητα στο χρήστη να δημιουργήσει μια συνθετική πραγματικότητα, ένα συνθετικό περιβάλλον. Η βασική της διαφορά από τα άλλα υπολογιστικά συστήματα είναι πως θέτει το χρήστη στο επίκεντρο των δραστηριοτήτων και οργανώνεται γύρω από τις αισθήσεις του.Παρέχει επίσης τη δυνατότητα να δημιουργούν, να χειρίζονται και να επεξεργάζονται τρισδιάστατα εικονικά αντικείμενα. Δημιουργήθηκε πιλοτικά για μια περιοχή έρευνας το Λαϊλιά και αποσκοπεί κυρίως στην ανάπτυξης μιας κατά κύριο λόγο τουριστικής περιοχής

Research of exhaust emissions by chainsaws with the use of a portable emission measurement system

Anthropogenic activities in the environment have an impact on climate change. Among these activities is the use of the chainsaw which plays an important role by releasing greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere. Hence, the need for research on improved logging operations is of importance. The present study compares carbon monoxide (CΟ) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) emissions generated by the engines of one catalytic chainsaw and two conventional chainsaws, of which one is professional and the other amateur. Measurements were carried out under three functional modes (infrequent accelerator use, use of quality oils, use of clean filters). Measurements that were conducted under normal conditions were named “witness measurements” and were used for future comparisons. Additionally, a set of measurements for CΟ and ΝΟ2 emissions was collected under different operation modes for all three types of saws (frequent accelerator use, use of low-quality oils, use of impure filters). Data collection was carried out in real conditions using a portable gas detector. Average concentration values of CΟ and ΝΟ2 under normal conditions for all three types of chainsaws found in the air of the operator’s breathing zone were 88.32 ppm and 0.07 ppm, respectively. Results show that CO concentrations exceed the permissible exposure limit (50 ppm), whereas CO concentrations in excess of the short-term exposure limit (300 ppm) were only found in the case of the amateur chainsaw operated with low-quality oils. These results are of use towards efforts to reduce the CO and NO2 to the atmosphere

Hierarchy of Hiking Trails using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to highlight the natural environment

Hiking on trails is an activity to improve the quality of human life, a strategy for the development of the tourist activity and highlighting the natural wealth of region. The present study deals with the hiking trails of the Municipality of Samothrace (Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, Greece). In this study, the trails were classified based on criteria with the contribution of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method, which determined the weights of the criteria. Seven criteria (Starting Elevation, Summit Elevation, Slope, Degree of Difficulty, Length, Hiking Time, and Starting Point Distance from the City) which are considered important for the selection of a hiking trail by hikers were compared pairwise and based on the results the hiking trails classified. The Analytical Hierarchy Process can help and guide both managers and people who make decisions about the sustainable use and protection of the natural environment, and hikers who consider the criteria for trail selection. In this way, priorities can be set for the maintenance of existing trails and the design of new ones