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Selected Papers from International Symposium AGROECOINFO 2022 Based on All Areas of Ecosystems Sustainability and Geoinformatics

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Water Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 December 2023) | Viewed by 3623

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Marios Spiliotopoulos

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Guest Editor

Department of Civil Engineering, University of Thessaly, 38221 Volos, Greece
Interests: environmental remote sensing; atmospheric physics; climatology; drought; climate impacts on water resources

Prof. Dr. Guido D’Urso

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Guest Editor

Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Naples Federico II, 80055 Portici, NA, Italy
Interests: development of earth observation interpretation techniques for water management and land surface processes; distributed agro-hydrological models for water management and irrigation; in situ and remote active microwave sensing of agricultural land surfaces
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Dr. Evangelia Golia

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Laboratory of Soil Science, School of Agriculture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 541 24 Thessaloniki, Greece
Interests: soil science; soil chemistry; environmental analysis; environmental monitoring; GIS; heavy metal(oid)s; trace elements; contamination monitoring; urban and agricultural soil pollution; physicochemical behavior of metals in environment
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Prof. Dr. Nicolas R. Dalezios

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Department of Civil Engineering, University of Thessaly, Pedion Areos, 38334 Volos, Greece
Interests: agrometeorological and hydrological modeling; stochastic and systems hydrology; environmental remote sensing; environmental hazards risk management and climate variability/change: impacts-mitigation-adaptation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Sustainable ecosystems play a very important role in the quality of life. We depend as a society on healthy ecosystems to arrange many things: purify the air so we can breathe properly, mitigate carbon for climate regulation, cycle nutrients so as to have access to clean drinking water, improve our crops and food, etc. As the world’s population continues to grow, our dependence on healthy ecosystems to provide the essential necessities for our survival is crucial.

This Special Issue aims to collect new studies and papers based on a very wide range of subjects, such as climate variability and change, climate variability in agriculture, agriculture and water resources, irrigation, water availability, climate modelling, impacts and mitigation of climate change, adaptation to climate change, agroclimatic classification and zoning, environmental hazards, hydrometeorological hazards in agriculture (floods, storms, drought, desertification), biophysical hazards in agriculture (frost, heatwaves, biohazards, wildfires), ecosystem management, soil management and sustainability, water management, zero waste management, toxicology and ecotoxicology, environmental quality management, environment and health, environmental economics, environmental scores and measures, environmental geoinformatics, environmental geoinformatics, digital agriculture, smart agriculture, smart farming, remote sensing, GIS, decision support systems (DSS), green ICT, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) and sensor development, multi-sensor and data fusion, intelligent systems for agriculture production, precision agriculture (PA), agricultural sensors, and farming drones, land and marine ecosystems, water–ecosystems–food (WEF) nexus, biodiversity, circular economy, renewable energy sources, and environmental legislation, ethics and green politics.

Papers selected for this Special Issue will be subjected to a rigorous peer-review procedure, with the aim of rapid and wide dissemination of research results, developments, and applications.

Dr. Marios Spiliotopoulos
Prof. Dr. Guido D’Urso
Dr. Evangelia Golia
Prof. Dr. Nicolas R. Dalezios
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

ecosystems
geoinformation
GIS
remote sensing
air and soil sustainability

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 8072 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Evaluating Rainwater Harvesting Systems for Water Scarcity Mitigation in Small Greek Islands under Climate Change

by Elissavet Feloni and Panagiotis T. Nastos

Sustainability 2024, 16(6), 2592; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su16062592 - 21 Mar 2024

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Abstract

Rainfall variability, exacerbated by climate change, poses significant challenges to water resource management, particularly in regions prone to intense droughts and floods. The Greek islands, characterized by poor water potential, face interannual water supply issues dating back to their earliest habitation. Rainwater harvesting (RWH) systems emerge as a promising solution to address water scarcity in these regions. This study simulates RWH systems for two small Greek islands, Fourni and Nisyros, representing similar rainfall regimes. Multiple scenarios are explored, and system reliability is assessed in light of simulated daily rainfall time series incorporating climate change projections. Utilizing eight low/medium (RCP 4.5) and eight high (RCP 8.5) emission scenarios over a future 35-year period, the study evaluates system reliability based on model parameters (collection area: 40 to 140 m², rainwater tank volume: 5 to 30 m³, number of household members: 2, 3), with 30% coverage of total daily water demand (180 L/d). Negligible evapotranspiration effects are assumed due to closed-type tanks. Results indicate that the RWH system demonstrates high efficiency in general. The investigation for the future period revealed that the system’s performance varies, with instances where daily demand targets are not met, even with a 30 m³ tank. This research underscores the potential of RWH systems as a cost-effective “green” solution, particularly in regions with deficient rainfall regimes. It highlights the importance of localized water management strategies, reducing reliance on mainland water transportation, and assisting desalination unit operations. In conclusion, this study contributes to the assessment of RWH systems, demonstrating their viability as a sustainable water management solution in regions facing water scarcity, contingent on local rainfall conditions and system design parameters. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from International Symposium AGROECOINFO 2022 Based on All Areas of Ecosystems Sustainability and Geoinformatics)

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16 pages, 4624 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Spatiotemporal Drought Assessment Based on Gridded Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) in Vulnerable Agroecosystems

by Stavros Sakellariou, Marios Spiliotopoulos, Nikolaos Alpanakis, Ioannis Faraslis, Pantelis Sidiropoulos, Georgios A. Tziatzios, George Karoutsos, Nicolas R. Dalezios and Nicholas Dercas

Sustainability 2024, 16(3), 1240; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su16031240 - 01 Feb 2024

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Abstract

Drought is one of the most critical environmental hazards for the viability and productive development of crops, especially in a climate change environment. To this end, drought assessment is a process of paramount importance to make vulnerable agricultural regions more resilient. The primary aim of this paper is an integrated drought assessment through time and space in one of the most susceptible (in terms of water availability limitations) and agriculturally productive regions in Greece and the Mediterranean, namely, the Thessaly region. Supplementary objectives consist of the determination of the two most extreme years in terms of drought and wetness, so that we may reveal any potential climatological cycles/patterns from 1981 to 2020. Additionally, the methodology includes the annual and seasonal analysis using one of the most widely used drought indices, namely, the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), so that consistent measurements are available across a large study area, avoiding the possible scarcity/deficiency of data coming from a sparse land weather network. The innovative element of this paper is the integrated spatiotemporal drought assessment in multiple time scales through the estimation of the SPI making use of remotely sensed data, such as CHIRPS (Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station data). The outcomes highlight that the study area faced two severe years of drought in 1988 and 1989, which led to moderate and extreme drought conditions, respectively. In contrast, extremely wet conditions were observed in 2002–2003, whereas 2009–2010 experienced moderately wet conditions. The central and western part of the region tends to suffer the most in terms of drought severity, especially at the most extreme years. The validity of the results has been confirmed by the adoption of R² where the index is approaching 0.67 despite the large size of the pixels (5 × 5 km). In this context, the mapping of spatial and seasonal variability across the study area permits more targeted measures (e.g., precision farming) instead of horizontal policies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from International Symposium AGROECOINFO 2022 Based on All Areas of Ecosystems Sustainability and Geoinformatics)

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16 pages, 2860 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Estimation of Hydraulic Parameters from the Soil Water Characteristic Curve

by Anastasia Angelaki, Vasiliki Bota and Iraklis Chalkidis

Sustainability 2023, 15(8), 6714; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su15086714 - 15 Apr 2023

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1530

Abstract

Soil water characteristic curve (SWCC) is one of the most essential hydraulic properties that play fundamental role in various environmental issues and water management. SWCC gives important information for water movement, soil behavior, infiltration, and drainage mechanism, affecting the water circle and the aquifer recharge. Since most of the world’s freshwater withdrawals go for irrigation uses, decoding SWCC is beneficial, as it affects water saving through irrigation planning. Estimation of crucial parameters, such as field capacity (FC) and permanent wilting point (PWP) is the key solution for water saving. Modelling of the SWCC and hydraulic parameters estimation are of great importance, since the laboratory experimental procedures and the experiments in the field are often time-consuming processes. In the present study, the SWCC along with FC and PWP of two soil types were obtained via specific experimental procedures in the laboratory. In order to simulate the SWCC and estimate FC and PWP, the experimental data were approximated with van Genuchten’s model. Results showed that using SWCC to estimate FC gives excellent results, while the method rationally overestimates the PWP. Hence, the presented method leads to estimation of crucial hydraulic parameters that can be used in irrigation planning and water saving practices. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from International Symposium AGROECOINFO 2022 Based on All Areas of Ecosystems Sustainability and Geoinformatics)

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