Ioannis Doukas

The Contribution of Contemporary Sensors to the Management of Natural and Manmade Disasters – The Present and the Future

There is a pretty large variety of all kinds of disasters (either natural or manmade). This established fact, in relation with the axiom that “disasters will always happen”, arguably is producing a numerous and extremely complex set of problems (social, environmental, economic and technical). The plethora of possibilities concerning applications of wireless sensor networks (WSN) and/or geosensor networks (GSN), which are a revolution in the physical world observation, forms a disruptive technology very beneficial for many (and different) fields and applications. In general, disaster monitoring, management and environmental observation are indisputably a wide and fertile field with enormous potential related with the advantages of network features such as e.g. densely deployment, dense sensing of the environment, large spatial coverage, robustness, no human intervention etc. The management of disasters demands competent decision support which, in its turn, asks for up-to-date information. WSN or GSN are by some means dedicated instruments which are capable to sample space-time processes and generate lots of real-time data that perfectly satisfies this urgent demand of up-to-date information (even support the frequent update of information for reacting promptly against crisis). For any kind of disaster, there is a five-phases life-cycle (i.e., response, recovery, mitigation, prevention, preparedness) known as Emergency Management and Disaster (Crisis) Risk Management Cycle (DRMC). In this paper, the diffusion of WNS and GSN into the management of disasters (natural and manmade) is briefly reviewed, since such networks are capable to offer their services to every phase of DRMC. Some thoughts concerning the future and “visions” are given by taking also into account their potential through their blending with other technologies/methods/techniques which belong to GIS, structural health monitoring, smartphone localization, pervasive (ubiquitous) computing, and ambient (spatial) intelligence. * Corresponding author.

On the Study, Modernisation, Support and Promotion of Transhumance, through a Dedicated web-GIS

In the midst of todays global energy and economic crisis, it is imperative that we turn to traditional practices which, assisted by modern technology, can offer sustainable and financial-savvy ways to support our efforts for economic development. Such a practice is transhumance, which shows a long historical background dating many centuries ago. The present study seeks to highlight this traditional activity with respect to its spatial evolution with the contribution of contemporary technological means such as GIS. In particular, an easy to use web-GIS application is proposed, built with ArcGIS™ software, in an environment easily accessible to either trained or untrained users. Aiming to the accurate visualisation of information in order the farmer to determine the most cost-effective design for own project of transhumance, the cartographic process proposed by this study utilises sources of cartographic data in a layered virtual environment, where information is collected, processed, distributed, developed, analysed and accessed.

Development of a Web-based GIS monitoring and environmental assessment system for the Black Sea: application in the Danube Delta area.

In this paper, the development of a Web-based GIS system for the monitoring and assessment of the Black Sea is presented. The integrated multilevel system is based on the combination of terrestrial and satellite Earth observation data through the technological assets provided by innovative information tools and facilities. The key component of the system is a unified, easy to update geodatabase including a wide range of appropriately selected environmental parameters. The collection procedure of current and historical data along with the methods employed for their processing in three test areas of the current study are extensively discussed, and special attention is given to the overall design and structure of the developed geodatabase. Furthermore, the information system includes a decision support component (DSC) which allows assessment and effective management of a wide range of heterogeneous data and environmental parameters within an appropriately designed and well-tested methodology. The DSC provides simplified and straightforward results based on a classification procedure, thus contributing to a monitoring system not only for experts but for auxiliary staff as well. The examples of the system’s functionality that are presented highlight its usability as well as the assistance that is provided to the decision maker. The given examples emphasize on the Danube Delta area; however, the information layers of the integrated system can be expanded in the future to cover other regions, thus contributing to the development of an environmental monitoring system for the entire Black Sea.