Marina environmental review system : a methodology to assess environmental management in recreational ports

This paper describes the basic requirements of an Environmental Management System for recreational ports (marinas), based on well-established systems such as ISO 14001, EMAS and the PERS methodology (Port Environmental Review System) recently developed by the ECOPORTS Foundation. A novel system that can assess the performance of environmental management has been created, appropriate to the marina environment, tailor made to the needs and requirements of each marina manager, aimed at supporting recreational ports to attain international accreditation (i.e. Blue Flag). This system, including environmental assessment and monitoring, was tested with major marinas in Greece and valuable conclusions were drawn.peer-reviewe

Probabilistic seismic hazard assessment in Greece – Part 3: Deaggregation

The present third part of the study, concerning the evaluation of earthquake hazard in Greece in terms of various ground motion parameters, deals with the deaggregation of the obtained results The seismic hazard maps presented for peak ground acceleration and spectral acceleration at 0.2 s and 1.0 s, with 10% probability of exceedance in 50 years, were deaggregated in order to quantify the dominant scenario. There are three basic components of each dominant scenario: earthquake magnitude (<i>M</i>), source-to-site distance (<i>R</i>) and epsilon (ε). We present deaggregation maps of mean and mode values of M-R-ε triplet showing the contribution to hazard over a dense grid

An attempt to model the relationship between MMI attenuation and engineering ground-motion parameters using artificial neural networks and genetic algorithms

Complex application domains involve difficult pattern classification problems. This paper introduces a model of MMI attenuation and its dependence on engineering ground motion parameters based on artificial neural networks (ANNs) and genetic algorithms (GAs). The ultimate goal of this investigation is to evaluate the target-region applicability of ground-motion attenuation relations developed for a host region based on training an ANN using the seismic patterns of the host region. This ANN learning is based on supervised learning using existing data from past earthquakes. The combination of these two learning procedures (that is, GA and ANN) allows us to introduce a new method for pattern recognition in the context of seismological applications. The performance of this new GA-ANN regression method has been evaluated using a Greek seismological database with satisfactory results

Areas of refuge for ships in need of assistance : an institutional framework enhancing maritime safety and protection of the European and global marine environment

Shipping has always involved high-risk operations and the accidental loss of a ship, has always been a serious matter for the industry. In addition to ship loss, the international community has always been sensitive to the fact that such accidents may lead to serious environmental damage. Recently, after the Prestige accident (2002), maritime safety and effective protection of the marine environment, in cases where a ship finds itself in serious difficulty or in need of assistance, without presenting a risk to the safety of life of persons onboard, were placed high on the agenda. In response to the above, the international community (IMO) as well as the European Union, have undertaken to develop and implement a series of measures and policies aimed at increasing efficiency when facing incidents as well as serious accidents at sea. The recent debate initiated by the Green paper on EU Maritime Policy is indicative of the need to develop an overall maritime policy that will ensure a sustainable future for the industry. The framework described as “places of refuge” has already supported several countries to develop plans to accommodate ships in distress, in waters under their jurisdiction. Such plans have incorporated the necessary procedures to provide a ship in distress with a network of areas, where adequate means and facilities for assistance, repair, and salvage and pollution response exist, as well as criteria for selecting and designating such areas. This paper discusses issues that inevitably arise when a balance needs to be established between both the prerogative of a ship in need of assistance to seek a place of refuge and the prerogative of a coastal State to protect its coastline, in the context of enhancing maritime safety, as well as preventing and controlling marine pollution from the maritime industry.peer-reviewe

Probabilistic seismic hazard assessment in Greece – Part 2: Acceleration response spectra and elastic input energy spectra

This second part of the study, deals with the evaluation of the earthquake hazard in Greece in terms of the response spectral acceleration and the elastic input energy equivalent velocity. Four sets of predictive equations were selected, two for each type of spectra. Probabilistic hazard maps were created by determining the seismic hazard at grid points covering the region of interest. The maps are presented for the dominant periods of 0.2 s and 1.0 s for each spectrum. Uniform hazard response spectra (UHRS) for six cities located in the regions of highest estimated hazard are also presented. The comparison with elastic design spectra proposed by the latest national building code, has shown that the UHRS values exceed the design values at almost all periods

Admissible Causal Structures and Correlations

It is well-known that if one assumes quantum theory to hold locally, then processes with indefinite causal order and cyclic causal structures become feasible. Here, we study qualitative limitations on causal structures and correlations imposed by local quantum theory. For one, we find a necessary graph theoretic criterion--the "siblings-on-cycles" property--for a causal structure to be admissible: Only such causal structures admit a realization consistent with local quantum theory. We conjecture that this property is moreover sufficient. This conjecture is motivated by an explicit construction of quantum causal models, and supported by numerical calculations. We show that these causal models, in a restricted setting, are indeed consistent. For another, we identify two sets of causal structures that, in the classical-deterministic case, give rise to causal and non-causal correlations respectively.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, extended preliminaries, details on numerical calculations, reference to source code, numerical test increased to six nodes. Comments welcome

S-WAVE SPECTRAL ANALYSIS AND ESTIMATION OF SPECTRAL PARAMETERS IN NORTHWESTERN GREECE

Κατά το χρονικό διάστημα Αύγουστος 1998 - Ιούνιος 1999, εγκαταστάθηκε στην Ήπειρο, από το Εργαστήριο Σεισμολογίας του Πανεπιστημίου Πατρών, φορητό μικροσεισμικό δίκτυο, αποτελούμενο από 44 σταθμούς, το οποίο κατέγραψε 1368 σεισμούς. Από αυτούς, επιλέχθηκαν 200 σεισμοί με μέγεθος από 1.61 έως 2.92 και εστιακό βάθος από μερικές εκατοντάδες μέτρα έως 35km, με την πλειοψηφία των σεισμών να εντοπίζεται στα 0-10km βάθος. Στην παρούσα εργασία πραγματοποιείται (i) υπολογισμός του σεισμικού φάσματος και των σεισμικών παραμέτρων; (ii) εφαρμογή γραμμικής παλινδρόμησης μεταξύ της Σεισμικής Ροπής Μ0 και των σεισμικών παραμέτρων Ακτίνα Ρήγματος (r),Πτώση Τάσης (Δσ) και Μετατόπιση (s); και (iii) εκτίμηση της κατανομής των σεισμικών παραμέτρων σε σχέση με την τεκτονική της περιοχής. Τέλος, οι εμπειρικές σχέσεις που προέκυψαν συγκρίνονται με αυτές από αντίστοιχες εργασίες.During a 12-month period (August 1998 - June 1999), a dense microseismic network of 44 portable seismographs, was installed in Epirus - Northwestern Greece, by the Seismological Laboratory, of the University of Patras and recorded 1368 earthquakes. We selected a subset of 200 well recorded events, with duration magnitude ranging from 1.61 to 2.92 and focal depths ranging from a few hundred meters to 35km; the majority was in the 0-10km range. This study uses this high quality dataset to (i)calculate the earthquake spectra and source parameters; (ii) perform linear regression between Seismic Moment (M0) and the source parameters Source Radius (r), Stress Drop (Δσ) and Displacement (s); (iii) correlate source parameter’s distribution with the tectonics of the area. Finally, we compare the derived empirical laws with similar studies

Comparative analysis of carrying capacity indices for the central Aegean Islands

The tourist industry is one of the most important economic activities in Greece. The country receives over 14 million visitors per year. In an era where tourism is one of the fastest growing sectors of the developing countries the competition with existing tourism destinations, such as Greece, will intensify. Greece has enjoyed increasing numbers and revenues from tourism due to the unique environment both natural and man-made making it a high profile tourist destination. However, it is already clear, that the uncontrolled growth of the industry can bring serious environmental and social problems, leading to a decline in the quality of tourist product and services provided. Such negative effects can be controlled and reduced using environmental and tourism indices to estimate the impact of tourism and other businesses on the environment. The purpose of this paper is to apply the principles of coastal environmental management for the Islands in the central Aegean Sea islands via the carrying capacity assessment methodology in order to develop environmental performance indicators necessary for formulating a novel sustainable development policy proposal for Greek tourism.peer-reviewe