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Abstract: The current economic downturn has put public budgets under pressure, reducing investments and revenues for local stakeholders to cope, among other things, with contemporary demands of environmental protection. Local-based partnerships may provide an efficient tool by adopting, integrating and implementing actions based on awareness and participation of a set of different players. This need is even more evident in rural areas in which a proposed decentralized bio-energy production model established in Agro-energy districtscan provide incentive and create a comfortable ground for the development of an energy production plant based on a mixed public-private partnership. Drawing on the implementation of a European co-funded research project the paper presents the efforts being made to build a partnership at a local level in order to cover the lack of an institutional plan and public investment for handling biomass production. Our aim is not primarily to present the best technical solution to bio-energy production but rather to illustrate the networking between different players, the public consultation, and the agreements being made under the form of Public Private Partnerships, as well as the levels of commitment and the risks taken. The gist of this study is that despite the civic engagements the inconsistent administrative environment, the dominance of the public sector and the State intervention through legislation and different political decisions, makes it still difficult for local partnerships to exercise their power and turn from government to governance in order to cope with the environmental challenges and tackle inequalities faced in rural areas. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The latest developments in the field of energy supply, along with the major issue of the environment protection, set new priorities and yardsticks concerning the energy policies implemented worldwide. The development and implementation of effective energy conservation policies has been a target of the European Union ever since the days when it was still called European Economic Community. In this framework, and despite the successes already monitored, the need for further energy conservation in the building sector is a both an aim and a tool. Emphasis is being placed on the residential building stock and the improvement of its energy performance. Greece has been one of the last countries to adopt the Directive on the Energy Performance of Buildings. A thorough research regarding the nature of the Greek residential building stock helps in highlighting the problems associated with this delay, but also the perspectives for catching up with the other EU member states and achieving the aims set for the coming years. This paper aims at providing detailed information on the residential urban building stock, as determined in a field study in typical big and smaller Greek cities. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The capacity expansion planning is a crucial process taking into account multiple aspects and various parameters of the examined power sector in order to optimally satisfy the future electricity demand. In the case of Greece, the long-term energy planning of the electricity supply sector faces a lot of challenges deriving from the peculiarities and geomorphology of the country mainly referring to the large number of islands. This paper explores the feasibility and the consequences of interconnecting Greek islands to the mainland grid by establishing two alternative scenarios of least cost electricity planning for the period 2009–2020. Namely, the reference scenario assumes isolated electric systems of islands and is compared against the alternative option of their interconnection to the mainland. The main purpose of the present study is to illustrate the great importance of islands’ interconnection on the development of renewable energy sources (RES) to generate electricity while pointing out the consequent economic and environmental benefits. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Monitoring of natural gas (NG) pipelines is an important task for economical/safety operation, loss prevention and environmental protection. Timely and reliable leak detection of gas pipeline, therefore, plays a key role in the overall integrity management for the pipeline system. Owing to the various limitations of the currently available techniques and the surveillance area that needs to be covered, the research on new detector systems is still thriving. Biosensors are worldwide considered as a niche technology in the environmental market, since they afford the desired detector capabilities at low cost, provided they have been properly designed/developed and rationally placed/networked/maintained by the aid of operational research techniques. This paper addresses NG leakage surveillance through a robust cooperative/synergistic scheme between biosensors and conventional detector systems; the network is validated in situ and optimized in order to provide reliable information at the required granularity level. The proposed scheme is substantiated through a knowledge based approach and relies on Fuzzy Multicriteria Analysis (FMCA), for selecting the best biosensor design that suits both, the target analyte and the operational micro-environment. This approach is illustrated in the design of leak surveying over a pipeline network in Greece. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The paper introduces a new methodology for the prediction of daily PM10 concentrations, in line with the regulatory framework introduced through the EU Directive 2008/50/EC. The proposed approach is based on the efficient utilisation of the data collected over short time intervals (hourly) rather than the daily values used to derive the daily regulatory threshold. It is sufficiently simple and easily applicable in operational forecasting systems with the ability to accept as inputs both historical data and exogenous paraeters, such as meteorological variables. The application of the proposed methodology is demonstrated using data from five monitoring stations of air pollutants located in Athens, over a five year period (2000–2004) as well as compatible meteorological data from the NCEP (National Centers for Environmental Protection). A set of different models have been tested at the same time to reveal the effectiveness of the proposed approach, both univariate and multivariate, and linear and non-linear models. The analysis of all examined datasets has shown conclusive evidence that the introduction of the newly developed procedure which utilises data collected over a shorter horizon can significantly increase the forecasting ability of any developed model using daily historic PM10 data, under all examined metrics. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Greece was among the last countries in the European Union to adopt the EU Directives on Environmental Impact Assessment, upgrading the previously existing legislative framework. The aim of the present paper was to appraise the quality of a randomly selected sample of EISs using non-obligatory but quality-related indicators and to evaluate the overall quality of these studies produced in Greece during the last decade (1993–2003). It was found that the majority of these EISs performed rather poorly in respect of most indicators used and there was little evidence of improvement with time. It is concluded that the authorities in charge still have little experience in coping with the increasing bulk of project submissions and are primarily interested in conformity with formal requirements rather than in reliable predictions and in overall quality of the EIA procedure. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]