On the Design of Environmental Protection Networks

During the last decades, it has come to the attention of many scientists, working on the fields of environmental protection, that there is a tendency for the appearance of extreme environmental phenomena (floods, extreme temperatures, prolonged dry seasons etc). Additionally the frequency of these phenomena tends to shorten, which means that although they started as rare, nowadays they are more common. Many scientists believe that their appearance is directly connected to the global climate change; nonetheless however since they become more frequent there is a need for developing monitoring methods in order to protect sensitive regions from their destructive force. Additionally the protective actions must be implemented in a new framework, which mainly consists on budget cuts, personnel reductions etc. The purpose of this paper is the presentation of a methodology which can be used in order to deploy monitoring networks, which can be modular and installed in problematic regions. Additionally we present a case study of the proposed methodology for a Greek area of special interest. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]