Garyfallos Arabatzis

Promotion of rural regional development through the WWW

Development Agencies constitute an innovative institution aiming to support integrated local development in rural areas, hence contributing to the transformation of economy. Shareholders are public and private organisations such as local prefectures, municipalities, scientific societies, unions, cooperatives as well as natural bodies. As internet has facilitated new prospects and opportunities for all to benefit, various websites were also established representing local development agencies. This paper aims to identify and study website content characteristics and to classify them according to their content. Most retrieved websites are information-based websites yet they can further evolve in e-service delivery.

Development of a decision support system for the study of an area after the occurrence of forest fire

There is a great diffusion of modern information systems in all areas of science. In the case of forestry, new information tools have emerged during the last 15 years which have helped to improve the work of foresters. Decision support systems (DSSs) are applications which are designed to help managers in the task of decision making, by accelerating the relevant decision-making processes, while simultaneously focusing on the conservation of natural, financial and human resources. In this paper, we describe the development of a DSS which has been designed to help managers in the process of decision making, in relation to areas that have been burnt by forest fires. In addition, the above system also provides the user with the capacity to create hypothetical (what-if) scenarios in order to achieve the best form of intervention. The relevant software was created using Visual C# and the weights of the various parameters were calculated using multi-criteria decision analysis.

Simulation of impacts of irrigated agriculture on income, employment and environment

This paper uses a multicriteria mathematical programming model to estimate the farmer’s utility function and simulate different scenarios and policies as well as to make alternative production plans. Application of this model was carried out in the irrigated region of the Xanthi Prefecture in Greece, as well as to three different farm clusters. The three farm clusters -small, medium and large sizes- were the result of a cluster analysis into a sample of farms of the region. In all these four cases, we considered three criteria for the estimation of the utility function; the maximization of total gross margin, the minimization of its variance and the minimization of labor. The estimated utility functions were used as objective functions of Linear or Quadratic (when the variance is considered) Programming models in order to find the optimum production plan of the total region and each farm size separately. These models were used to simulate the impacts on the production plan, income, employment and the environment due to a policy, which increases the price of irrigation water.

Typology of the lagoons of Northern Greece according to their environmental characteristics and fisheries production

The typology of the lagoon ecosystems according to their environmental characteristics and their fishery production can describe not only the dynamics of their fisheries capability but also the effectiveness of the applied fishery management. Lagoon systems are places with a great biological and ecological importance. Fishery is the main economical activity in these ecosystems but intensive agriculture, industry and tourism have degraded their sensitive environmental structure. According to their ecological characteristics, the human fishery interferences and their fishery productivity, twenty-three lagoon ecosystems are examined and classified in this study, aiming to the adaptation of a more suitable extensive aquaculture management for each group of lagoons. The application of new contemporary aquaculture management models can lead to the up gradation of their fisheries productivity in common with the conservation of their natural resources, as fishing is the best suited activity for these ecosystems, well adapted from the past.

Investigation of the relative efficiency of LEADER+ in rural areas of Northern Greece

The aim of this paper is to investigate and measure the relative efficiency of LEADER+ action plans of seven rural areas in Northern Greece. To this end, a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model is used, which is based on data from LEADER+ provided by the Ministry of Agriculture. In particular, the DEA method is used for measuring the relative efficiency of local actions and for the investigation of the inputs and outputs and to show how the maximisation of their relative efficiencies could be achieved through its use. The specific DEA model has the required characteristics for the empirical application of the input-oriented DEA method. The model shows that some Decision-Making Units could maximise their relative efficiency by proceeding to internal adjustments of the inputs being used, and it is these internal adjustments which are being taken into consideration for this paper.

Characteristics Of Tourism Development In Mountainous Regions Using Categorical Regression: The Case Of Metsovo (greece)

Leisure and tourism activities conceived as part of the developmental process of particular areas or regions can contribute to their economic growth to varying degrees of intensity so that they can be attainable and/or desirable. The exploitation of national resources is of great economic value in promoting tourism development in the provincial and underdeveloped areas of Greece. An evaluation of the factors that contribute to the growth of tourism in these regions would be useful in decision making and planning as far as their development is concerned. Such an interesting region from a tourism perspective, with many individual characteristics is the region of Metsovo, which belongs to Epirus, one of the poorest EU regions. However, Metsovo has recently presented a dynamic image since the region’s natural resources and rich cultural heritage (many Greek benefactors originated from here), along with its farming products with designation of origin, have created major prospects for the promotion of tourism. The present research was carried out using a structured questionnaire and cluster sampling involving visitors staying in local hotels. The collected data were elaborated using the SPSS v. 11.0 statistical program. Descriptive statistics and categorical regression were used to analyse the relevant data. The main conclusions have shown that the profile of visitors to Metsovo can be summarized using the following characteristics: relatively young, minimum secondary school graduates and belonging to the upper social classes ( judged by their profession). In addition, for more than half of the visitors the region of Metsovo is their permanent holiday location, primarily for relaxation purposes. The main problems that visitors face in the region of Metsovo relate to the lack of parking areas and cleanliness. Visitors with a higher level of education and/or income choose to visit Metsovo during public holidays or weekends; they also show a tendency to spend more money in comparison to the rest of the visitors. Finally, visitors who describe the surrounding countryside as nice or very nice are characterized by a higher professional and educational standing.

Efficiency analysis of forestry journals: Suggestions for improving journals’ quality

In this paper we attempt to assess the impact of journals in the field of forestry, in terms of bibliometric data, by providing an evaluation of forestry journals based on data envelopment analysis (DEA). In addition, based on the results of the conducted analysis, we provide suggestions for improving the impact of the journals in terms of widely accepted measures of journal citation impact, such as the journal impact factor (IF) and the journal h-index. More specifically, by modifying certain inputs associated with the productivity of forestry journals, we have illustrated how this method could be utilized to raise their efficiency, which in terms of research impact can then be translated into an increase of their bibliometric indices, such as the h-index, IF or eigenfactor score.

Involving local people in sustainable rural development and conservation: a response to the economic crisis

This paper concerns the management and development of natural resources using citizens’ participation in decision-making procedures. The study examines the economic growth of gateway communities in the Amvrakikos Wetlands National Park with the use of a structured questionnaire and through personal interviews. Simple random sampling was used as a method. The case study constitutes an approach used to examine local people’s views concerning the various characteristics of the broader area, their living standards, as well as the sectors they wanted existing and future developments to be based upon. Through the research results, it is acknowledged that local people consider employment opportunities to be inadequate. They think that local development is based, partly, on the primary sector. Whereas, local people wish the primary sector to be enhanced along with the secondary, they want industry development and a tertiary sector, with the provision of services and tourism.

The attractiveness of archaeological sites in Greece: a spatial analysis

This paper deals with the attractiveness of the archaeological sites, historical monuments and museums found in Greek prefectures. The object of this paper is to analyse and describe what influences this attractiveness. Several factors are examined, which are related to the characteristics or uniqueness of each site, its scientific or historical value, the state and attractiveness of the surrounding natural environment, the sites accessibility, its archaeological or tourist potential, etc. A statistical model is proposed, using actual data from Greece, in order to estimate the influence of each factor on the total attractiveness of archaeological sites or museums. Finally, conclusions are drawn based on the quantitative analysis provided.

A goal programming model for a sustainable biomass supply chain network

Purpose The design of a biomass supply chain is a problem where multiple stakeholders with often conflicting objectives are involved. To accommodate the aspects stakeholder, the supply chain design should incorporate multiple objectives. In addition to the supply chain design, the management of energy from biomass is a demanding task, as the operation of production of biomass products needs to be aligned with the rest of the operations of the biomass supply chain. The purpose of the paper is to propose a mathematical framework for the optimal design of biomass supply chain. Design/methodology/approach An integrated mathematical framework that models biomass production, transportation and warehousing throughout the nodes of a biomass supply chain is presented. Owing to conflicting objectives, weights are imposed on each aspect, and a 0-1 weighted goal programming mixed-integer linear programming (WGP MILP) programming model is formulated and used for all possible weight representations under environmental, economic and social criteria. Findings The results of the study show that emphasis on the environmental aspect, expressed with high values in the environmental criterion, significantly reduces the level of CO2 emissions derived from the transportation of biomass through the various nodes of the supply chain. Environmental and economic criteria seem to be moving in the same direction for high weight values in the corresponding aspect. From the results, social criterion seems to move to the opposite direction from environmental and economic criteria. Originality/value An integrated mathematical framework is presented modeling biomass production, transportation and warehousing. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, such a model that integrates multiple objectives with supply chain design has not yet been published.