Suchergebnisse

The increasing pressure on water resources in Europe&rsquo ; s broader area led member states to take measures and adopt a common legislative &ldquo ; umbrella&rdquo ; of directives to protect them. The aim of this research is to investigate practicing deficiencies, information lacks and distances from optimal status as set by the Water Framework Directive and supporting water uses. This contributes to the improvement of the efficiency and harmonization of all environmental goals especially when management of Protected Areas is addressed. Gap analysis, an approach that reveals the distance between current and desired level, was carried out, targeting five Mediterranean hydro-ecosystems, covering three major water policy pillars &ldquo ; Monitoring Practices&rdquo ; &ldquo ; Management Practices&rdquo ; and &ldquo ; Water Quality and Pressures&rdquo ; . Data for such analyses was collected by literature research supported by a query matrix. The findings revealed a lack in compliance with the Water Framework Directive regarding the &ldquo ; Monitoring Practices&rdquo ; and several deficiencies in sites burdened by eutrophication and human pressures on &ldquo ; Water Quality and Pressures&rdquo ; field. As for &ldquo ; Management Practices&rdquo ; extra effort should be applied in all hydro-ecosystems to reach the desirable state. We suggest that gap analysis, as a harmonization tool, can unify apparently different areas under the same goals to reveal the extra necessary &ldquo ; investment&rdquo ; .

Abstract. Risk assessment constitutes the first part within the risk management framework and involves evaluating the importance of a risk, either quantitatively or qualitatively. Risk assessment consists of three steps, namely risk identification, risk estimation and risk evaluation. Nevertheless, the risk management framework also includes a fourth step, i.e., the need for feedback on all the risk assessment undertakings. However, there is a lack of such feedback, which constitutes a serious deficiency in the reduction of environmental hazards at the present time. Risk identification of local or regional hazards involves hazard quantification, event monitoring including early warning systems and statistical inference. Risk identification also involves the development of a database where historical hazard information and hazard effects are included. Similarly, risk estimation involves magnitude–frequency relationships and hazard economic costs. Furthermore, risk evaluation consists of the social consequences of the derived risk and involves cost-benefit analysis and community policy. The objective of this review paper is twofold. On the one hand, it is to address meteorological hazards and extremes within the risk management framework. Analysis results and case studies over Mediterranean ecosystems with emphasis on the wider area of Greece, in the eastern Mediterranean, are presented for each of the three steps of risk assessment for several environmental hazards. The results indicate that the risk management framework constitutes an integrated approach for environmental planning and decision-making. On the other hand, it sheds light on advances and current trends in the considered meteorological and environmental hazards and extreme events, such as tornadoes, waterspouts, hailstorms, heat waves, droughts, floods, heavy convective precipitation, landslides and wildfires, using recorded datasets, model simulations and innovative methodologies.