Resolving conflicting objectives in the management of the Plastiras Lake: Can we quantify beauty?

The possible water management of the Plastiras Lake, an artificial reservoir in central Greece, is examined. The lake and surrounding landscape are aesthetically degraded when the water level drops, and the requirement of maintaining a high quality of the scenery constitutes one of the several conflicting water uses, the other ones being irrigation, water supply, and power production. This environmental water use, and, to a lesser extent, the requirement for adequate water quality, results in constraining the annual release. Thus, the allowed fluctuation of reservoir stage is not defined by the physical and technical characteristics of the reservoir, but by a multi-criteria decision, the three criteria being maximising water release, ensuring adequate water quality, and maintaining a high quality of the natural landscape. Each of these criteria is analyzed separately. The results are then put together in a multicriterion tableau, which helps understand the implications of the possible alternative decisions. Several conflict resolution methods are overviewed, namely willingness to pay, hedonic prices, and multi-criteria decision analysis. All these methods attempt to quantify non-quantifiable qualities, and it is concluded that they don't necessarily offer any advantage over merely making a choice based on understanding

Organization and evaluation of a sustainable Islands network

The DAPHNE network (δAφNH, in Greek) has been developed for the Aegean islands with the objective to promote the sustainable development of a region that is ecologically sensitive and culturally rich. The basic tool employed is an evaluation-certification system that results in the yearly award of a sustainability badge for each qualified island. The evaluation process includes a series of activities, such as examining the condition in each island and detecting environmental pressures, defining widely acceptable sustainability priorities, and scheduling and assessing relevant actions. There are two basic axes in the evaluation methodology: island condition and program actions. Ten thematic sectors of sustainable development that are considered as including the maximum number of island condition and action cases have been selected. Sustainability assessment is done by assigning scores to a series of factors and by calculating a total score. Islands with yearly scores greater than or equal to a pre-defined minimum receive (or retain) the sustainability badge for that year. © 2011 WIT Press

MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT AND LANDFILL SITE SELECTION IN GREECE: IRRATIONALITY VERSUS EFFICIENCY

Municipal solid waste (MSW) collection and disposal is a major problem of urban environment in the world today. MSW management solutions have to be technologically feasible, legally and socially acceptable and environmentally and financially sustainable. European policy is pushing to a rational management of natural resources; a promising technological perspective today is waste valorization, a process that becomes possible through sorting at the source, combined with material recycling and waste-to-energy methods. On the other hand, technologies like mechanical sorting, or disposal of MSW in landfills do not really improve MSW management efficiency. Landfills should become the ultimate disposal site of a few inert residuals from MSW valorization. Despite all this, conventional landfills for disposal of mixed MSW are still being constructed, with landfill site selection being a major social problem due to the lack of public acceptance; objectivity in landfill site selection is therefore extremely important. In Greece, we find several examples of inefficient MSW management and curious landfill site selection. In this paper, we criticize environmental policy issues for MSW management in Greece and identify weak points in the criteria used for the selection of landfill sites. We conclude that there is a real need for rational MSW management based on high quality scientific input