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Land subsidence in coastal and delta cities often results in infrastructure and residential building damages, while also increasing the area's flooding vulnerability. The coastal cities of Messolonghi and Aitolikon are typical examples, as they are built on top of old stream deposits near the coast. In the last several years, the gradual subsidence of the sites, combined with the impact of climate change, resulted in multiple floods. The rush of seawater over the lowlands has also been reported. Persistent scatterer interferometry (PSI) is a remote-sensing technique that can provide a reliable and cost-effective solution, as it can be used to identify and monitor soil displacements. In this study, a novel parallelized PSI (P-PSI) processing chain, developed by the Operational Unit Center for Earth Observation Research and Satellite Remote Sensing (BEYOND) of the National Observatory of Athens, as well as the Copernicus EGMS product were used to identify these displacements. The results were examined in correlation with other potential factors such as the overexploitation of the underground water, the natural compaction of the clay soil layers, the primary and secondary consolidation due to the external construction loading, the oxidation of the organic soils, tidal gauge data, precipitation data, and ground truth data. In Messolonghi, various deformation rates were recorded, with maximum mean values of −5 mm/year in the eastern part, whereas in Aitolikon, the maximum values were around −4.5 mm/year. The displacements were mostly attributed to the primary consolidation due to the building loads. Deformation patterns and their correlation with precipitation could also be witnessed. It was evident that the increased precipitation rates and sea level rise played a leading role in the constant flooding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Voles of the genus Microtus represent one of the most speciose mammalian genera in the Holarctic. Moreover, they are also widespread in the European agricultural landscape. In addition, they are the most common vertebrate pests in European agriculture, causing extensive annual damages to a large variety of crops and exposing humans to an increased risk of pathogen transmission. In order to propose mitigation and possible management measures, it is necessary to record the initial abundance and distribution patterns of vole species within complex ecosystems. Considering the large extensions occupied by agroecosystems and the demanding but small-scale application of live trapping, an optimal method to initiate small mammal monitoring on large spatial scales is through Barn Owl Tyto alba diet analysis. Barn Owls prey almost exclusively on small mammals and predominantly on voles; thus, they can be used as an ideal proxy for the distribution and abundance patterns of small mammals in the field. In our study, we studied the diet of Barn Owls over a total range of 3000 sq. km for two continuous years through pellet analysis (more than 10,000 pellets) and identified the distribution and abundance patterns of four vole species with respect to different environmental gradients. Voles are the most common vertebrate pests in European agriculture. Identifying their distribution and abundance patterns provides valuable information for future management. Barn Owl diet analysis is one of the optimum methods used to record small mammal distribution patterns on large spatial scales. From 2003 to 2005, a total of 10,065 Barn Owl pellets were collected and analyzed from 31 breeding sites in the largest agroecosystem in Greece, the Thessaly plains. A total of 29,061 prey items were identified, offering deep insight into small mammal distribution, specifically voles. Four discrete vole species (Harting's vole Microtus hartingi, East European vole Microtus levis, Thomas's pine vole Microtus thomasi, and Grey dwarf hamster Cricetulus migratorius) comprised 40.5% (11,770 vole prey items) of the total Barn Owl prey intake. The presence and abundance of the voles varied according to underlying environmental gradients, with soil texture and type playing a major role. M. levis showed no significant attachments to gradients, other than a mild increase in Mollisol soils. It was syntopic in all sites with M. hartingi, which was the dominant and most abundant small mammal species, preferring non-arable cultivated land, natural grasslands, set-aside fields, and fallow land. M. thomasi was strictly present in western Thessaly and strongly associated with a sandy-clay soil texture and Alfisol soils. C. migratorius was the least represented vole (162 items), exclusively present in eastern Thessaly and demonstrating a stronger association with cereals, Mollisol soils, and an argillaceous-clay soil texture. This is the first study in Greece at such a large spatial scale, offering insights for pest rodents' distribution in intensive agroecosystems and their response to environmental gradients including soil parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thorough knowledge of soil lithology and its properties are of considerable importance to agriculture. These parameters have a direct impact on water permeability and the content of the water in soil, which represent significant factors in crop yield, decisively determining the design of irrigation systems and farming processes. In the framework of this study, and considering the inevitable impacts of climate change, the rational management of water resources and the optimization of irrigation through innovative technologies become of significant importance. Thus, we propose an interdisciplinary approach based on robust techniques from the allied fields of earth (geological mapping, geophysical methods) and soil sciences (sampling, mechanical analysis) assisted by statistics and GIS techniques. Clay or the sum of clay and silt soil content is successfully determined from the normalized chargeability using induced polarization and electrical resistivity techniques. Finally, we distinguished three classes (S1, S2 and S3) considering the clay or the sum of clay and silt soil content in the study area (a) based on the dry period geophysical data and (b) using as classification criterion the spatial distribution of the geological formations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]