On the factors affecting the abundance and distribution of the red bandfish (Cepola macrophthalma) in the Western coast of Greece (Patraikos,Korinthiakos Gulfs and Ionian Sea)

A stepwise multiple linear regression model was used in order to examine the influence of environmental factors on the abundance of the red bandfish (Cepola macrophthalma), a bottom dwelling organism, in the Patraikos and Korinthiakos Gulfs and the Ionian Sea, Western Greece. Samples were collected in June 1985. It was found that 95% of the variation in the abundance of the red bandfish in that area is attributed to the combining negative effect of bottom temperature and salinity and the positive effect of depth. The exact form of the relationship was: log C=449.75–17.12 log T‐110.69 log S + 1.09 log D. The strong influence of these abiotic factors on the abundance of the red bandfish, predicted by the model, is found in concordance with behavioral and ecological information on the red bandfish from the Northeast Atlantic, as well as with data on its distribution in the Greek Seas.     

Effect of organic matter and moisture on the calorific value of solid wastes: An update of the Tanner diagram

Objective of the work was to experimentally determine the effect of the organic matter and moisture contents on the calorific value of organic solid wastes. Nine substrates (i.e. newsprint, biodried municipal solid wastes, municipal solid waste derived composts, wastewater sludges, and sea weed derived compost), with organic matter contents that ranged from 12% to 91% (dry weight) were used in the experiments. All substrates were dried and ground and deionized water was artificially added in order to achieve certain target moisture contents per substrate. The higher heating value (HHV) was, then, determined experimentally for each sample using a bomb calorimeter. Best reduced models were developed to describe the higher and lower heating values as a function of organic matter, ash and moisture contents. A triangular plot was constructed and the self-sustained combustion area was determined and compared to that of the Tanner diagram. Response surfaces were drawn to visually assess the effect of organic matter and moisture contents on the calorific value of the wastes.     

Evaluation of sustainability by a population living near fossil fuel resources in Northwestern Greece

The emergence of sustainability as a goal in the management of fossil fuel resources is a result of the growing global environmental concern, and highlights some of the issues expected to be significant in coming years. In order to secure social acceptance, the mining industry has to face these challenges by engaging its many different stakeholders and examining their sustainability concerns. For this reason a questionnaire was conducted involving a simple random sampling of inhabitants near an area rich in fossil fuel resources, in order to gather respondents’ views on social, economic and environmental benefits. The study discusses new subnational findings on public attitudes to regional sustainability, based on a quantitative research design. The site of the study was the energy-rich Greek region of Kozani, Western Macedonia, one of the country’s energy hubs. The paper examines the future perspectives of the area. The conclusions can form a useful framework for energy policy in the wider Balkan area, which contains important fossil fuel resources.     

Model-driven development of covariances for spatiotemporal environmental health assessment

Known conceptual and technical limitations of mainstream environmental health data analysis have directed research to new avenues. The goal is to deal more efficiently with the inherent uncertainty and composite space-time heterogeneity of key attributes, account for multi-sourced knowledge bases (health models, survey data, empirical relationships etc.), and generate more accurate predictions across space-time. Based on a versatile, knowledge synthesis methodological framework, we introduce new space-time covariance functions built by integrating epidemic propagation models and we apply them in the analysis of existing flu datasets. Within the knowledge synthesis framework, the Bayesian maximum entropy theory is our method of choice for the spatiotemporal prediction of the ratio of new infectives (RNI) for a case study of flu in France. The space-time analysis is based on observations during a period of 15 weeks in 1998–1999. We present general features of the proposed covariance functions, and use these functions to explore the composite space-time RNI dependency. We then implement the findings to generate sufficiently detailed and informative maps of the RNI patterns across space and time. The predicted distributions of RNI suggest substantive relationships in accordance with the typical physiographic and climatologic features of the country.     

Green additives to enhance silica dissolution during water treatment

The effect of various environmentally friendly chemical additives on the dissolution of colloidal silica is systematically studied. These silica scale dissolvers are principally polycarboxylates with one to five –COOH groups, mixed polycarboxylates/phosphonates and aminoacids. Based on these results, an effort is made to link their dissolution performance to structural features in this structure/function study. Presence of additional groups (eg. –PO₃H₂, –NH₂, or –OH) in the dissolver molecule augments the dissolution process.     

Assessing non-financial reports according to the Global Reporting Initiative guidelines: evidence from Greece

In recent years a growing number of companies around the world have started reporting on issues other that those in the financial domain, in order to discharge their accountability efforts. While such non-financial accounting and reporting footprints, in terms of relevant policies and practices, are evident among all regions and such activities are becoming a universal trend, the level of uptake and diffusion varies from country to country. This paper contributes to the country-level analyses of non-financial reporting by assessing the quality and inclusiveness of triple-bottom-line reports published by companies operating in Greece. To accomplish this, a numerical scoring system was devised, based on the de facto global standard on corporate non-financial reporting, the Global Reporting Initiative guidelines. Overall findings reveal major gaps in the disclosing practices of Greek organizations and denote that there is much room for improvement in order to meet international standards and promote effective engagement with their stakeholders.     

Decision support models for solid waste management: Review and game-theoretic approaches

This paper surveys decision support models that are commonly used in the solid waste management area. Most models are mainly developed within three decision support frameworks, which are the life-cycle assessment, the cost–benefit analysis and the multi-criteria decision-making. These frameworks are reviewed and their strengths and weaknesses as well as their critical issues are analyzed, while their possible combinations and extensions are also discussed. Furthermore, the paper presents how cooperative and non-cooperative game-theoretic approaches can be used for the purpose of modeling and analyzing decision-making in situations with multiple stakeholders. Specifically, since a waste management model is sustainable when considering not only environmental and economic but also social aspects, the waste management bargaining game is introduced as a specific decision support framework in which future models can be developed.     

Discussion of the paper "Cost effective policies for alternative distributions of stochastic water pollution" by Gren, Destouni and Tempone

This discussion addresses some aspects of a recent paper appearing in this journal which investigates cost effective coastal water management based on different assumptions of the probability distributions (normal and log-normal) of pollutant transport. We also suggest an alternative approach to overcome the technical problems of using the theoretical correct distribution for characterising environmental data (log-normal) within a probabilistic programming framework.