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Ever since there has been an increase in the number of automatic wildfire monitoring and surveillance systems in the last few years, natural landscape images have been of great importance. In this paper we propose an expert system for fast segmentation and classification of regions on natural landscape images that is suitable for real-time applications. We focus primarily on Mediterranean landscape images since the Mediterranean area and areas with similar climate are the ones most associated with high wildfire risk. The proposed expert system is based on cogent confabulation theory and knowledge bases that contain information about local and global features, optimal color spaces suitable for classification of certain regions, and context of each class. The obtained results indicate that the proposed expert system significantly outperforms well-known classifiers that it was compared against in both accuracy and speed, and that it is effective and efficient for real-time applications. Additionally, we present a FESB MLID dataset on which we conducted our research and that we made publicly available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on early Holocene rapid climate change (RCC) records in the Mediterranean zone, which are under-represented in continental archives (9.2 to 8.2 ka events) and on their impact on prehistoric societies. This lack of data handicaps the general interpretation of climate impacts on human societies, which flourished in recent years. Key questions remain about the impact of early Holocene cooling events on the Mediterranean climate, ecosystems and human societies. In this paper, we discuss some examples from river and lake systems from the eastern to central Mediterranean area (central Anatolia, Cyprus, northeastern and northwestern Greece) that illustrate some palaeohydrological and erosion variations that modified the sustainability of the first Neolithic populations in this region. Results allow us to present direct land-sea correlations and to reconstruct regional long-term trends as well as millennial- to centennial-scale climatic changes. In this context, we question the socio-economic and geographical adaptation capacities of these societies (mobility, technology, economic practices, social organisation) during the "early Holocene" interval (11.7 to 8.2 ka), which corresponds partly to the Sapropel 1 deposition in the eastern Mediterranean sea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims at conducting the first science mapping analysis of the Mediterranean forest research in order to elucidate its research structure and evolution. We applied a science mapping approach based on co-term and citation analyses to a set of scientific publications retrieved from the Elsevier’s Scopus database over the period 1980–2014. The Scopus search retrieved 2,698 research papers and reviews published by 159 peer-reviewed journals. The total number of publications was around 1% (N = 17) during the period 1980–1989 and they reached 3% (N = 69) in the time slice 1990–1994. Since 1995, the number of publications increased exponentially, thus reaching 55% (N = 1,476) during the period 2010–2014. Within the thirty-four years considered, the retrieved publications were published by 88 countries. Among them, Spain was the most productive country, publishing 44% (N = 1,178) of total publications followed by Italy (18%, N = 482) and France (12%, N = 336). These countries also host the ten most productive scientific institutions in terms of number of publications in Mediterranean forest subjects. Forest Ecology and Management and Annals of Forest Science were the most active journals in publishing research in Mediterranean forest. During the period 1980–1994, the research topics were poorly characterized, but they become better defined during the time slice 1995–1999. Since 2000s, the clusters become well defined by research topics. Current status of Mediterranean forest research (20092014) was represented by four clusters, in which different research topics such as biodiversity and conservation, land-use and degradation, climate change effects on ecophysiological responses and soil were identified. Basic research in Mediterranean forest ecosystems is mainly conducted by ecophysiological research. Applied research was mainly represented by land-use and degradation, biodiversity and conservation and fire research topics. The citation analyses revealed highly cited terms in the Mediterranean forest research as they were represented by fire, biodiversity, carbon sequestration, climate change and global warming. Finally, our analysis also revealed the multidisciplinary role of climate change research. This study provides a first holistic view of the Mediterranean forest research that could be useful for researchers and policy makers as they may evaluate and analyze its historical evolution, as well as its structure and scientific production. We concluded that Mediterranean forest research represents an active scientific field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technology transfer, scientific research and education could have a key role in Mediterranean regions, in order to reduce the environmental impact of the building sector. Recently, the Department of Engineering of University of Sannio has developed a laboratory suitable for performing researches on the dynamic interactions between building envelope components, indoor environment and mechanical systems for a typical climate of south of Italy. The work described within this paper is a part of this large-scale project. Its goals are: (a) to design, test and validate a poly-equipped test room, (b) to perform transient tests to determine performances of common and innovative building components and alternative HVAC systems. More in detail, this paper focuses on the first goal, with the aim to generalize the design approach, requirements and capabilities of calibrated outdoor test facilities, specifically thought for Mediterranean climate. The facility has undergone a substantial amount of characterization tests, aimed at determining its response under yearly operations. The primary conclusions are that the new test facility is usable for a wide range of environmental and indoor conditions, it is functional and has been validated through characterization and preliminary investigations of the behavior of the thermal envelope. Moreover, some experimental results are here analyzed, by evidencing the potentialities of vacuum insulation panels for improving the performances of the thermal envelope, for what concerns both winter and summer seasons. Then, some numerical analyses have been carried out. A 3D CFD model has been calibrated for studying the real distribution of temperatures and water vapor partial pressures within VIP panels. Furthermore, a dynamic energy model of the test cell has been developed by means of Energy Plus, with the aim to use its capability to compare potential configurations that would be installed in future researches, or to evaluate energy, environmental and economic issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A comprehensive overview is provided of processes and challenges related to Mediterranean groundwater resources and associated changes in recent decades. While most studies are focused thematically and/or geographically, this paper addresses different stages of groundwater exploitation in the region and their consequences. Examples emphasize the complex interactions between the physical and social dimensions of uses and evolution of groundwater. In natural conditions, Mediterranean groundwater resources represent a wide range of hydrogeological contexts, recharge conditions and rates of exploitation. They have been actively exploited for millennia but their pseudo-natural regimes have been considerably modified in the last 50 years, especially to satisfy agricultural demand (80% of total water consumption in North Africa), as well as for tourism and coastal cities. Climate variability affects groundwater dynamics but the various forms of anthropization are more important drivers of hydrological change, including changes in land use and vegetation, hydraulic works, and intense pumpings. These changes affect both the quantity and quality of groundwater at different scales, and modify the nature of hydrogeological processes, their location, timing, and intensity. The frequent cases of drastic overexploitation illustrate the fragility of Mediterranean groundwater resources and the limits of present forms of management. There is no easy way to maintain or recover sustainability, which is often threatened by short-term interests. To achieve this goal, a significant improvement in hydrogeological knowledge and closer collaboration between the various disciplines of water sciences are indispensable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the French Mediterranean, large fires have significant socioeconomic and environmental impacts. We used a long-term georeferenced fire time series (1958–2017) to analyze both spatial and temporal distributions of large fires (LFs; ≥100 ha). The region was impacted in some locations up to six times by recurrent LFs and 21 % of the total area burned by LFs occurred on a surface that previously burned in the past, with potential impact on forest resilience. We found contrasting patterns between the east and the west of the study area, the former experiencing fewer LFs but of a larger extent compared to the latter, with an average time of occurrence between LFs exceeding 4000 ha <7 years mostly in the eastern coastal area and >50 years in the west. This longitudinal gradient in LF return level contrasts with what we would expect from mean fire weather conditions strongly decreasing eastwards during the fire season but is consistent with larger fuel cover in the east, highlighting the strong role of fuel continuity in fire spread. Additionally, our analysis confirms the sharp decrease in both LF frequency and burned area in the early 1990s, due to the efficiency of fire suppression and prevention reinforced at that time, thereby weakening the functional climate–fire relationship across the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to provide convenient data to assess rainfall simulated by Regional Climate Models, a spatial database (hereafter called K-REF) has been designed. This database is used to examine climatological features of rainfall in Southeast France, a study region characterized by two mountain ranges of comparable altitude (the Cévennes and the Alps foothill) on both sides of the Rhône valley. Hourly records from 1993 to 2013 have been interpolated to a 0.1∘×0.1∘ latitude-longitude regular grid and accumulated over 3-h periods in K-REF. The assessment of K-REF relatively to the SAFRAN daily rainfall reanalysis indicates consistent patterns and magnitudes between the two datasets even though K-REF fields are smoother. A multi-scale analysis of the occurrence and non-zero intensity of rainfall is performed and shows that the maps of the 50th and 95th percentiles of 3- and 24-h rain intensity highlight different patterns. The maxima of the 50th and 95th percentiles are located over plain and mountainous areas respectively. Moreover, the location of these maxima is not the same for the 3- and 24-h intensities. To understand these differences between median and intense rainfall on the one hand and between the 3- and 24-h rainfall on the other hand, we analyze the statistical distributions and the space-time structure of occurrence and intensity of the 3-h rainfall in two classes of days, defined as median and intense. This analysis illustrates the influence of two factors on the triggering and the intensity of rain in the region: the solar cycle and the orography. The orographic forcing appears to be quite different for the two ranges of the domain and is much more pronounced over the Cévennes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extreme heat events will become more frequent under anthropogenic climate change, especially in Mediterranean ecosystems. Microhabitats can considerably moderate (buffer) the effects of extreme weather events and hence facilitate the persistence of some components of the biodiversity. We investigate the microclimatic moderation provided by two important microhabitats (cavities formed by the leaves of the grass-tree Xanthorrhoea semiplana F.Muell., Xanthorrhoeaceae; and inside the leaf-litter) during the summer of 2015/16 on the Fleurieu Peninsula of South Australia. We placed microsensors inside and outside these microhabitats, as well as above the ground below the forest canopy. Grass-tree and leaf-litter microhabitats significantly buffered against high temperatures and low relative humidity, compared to ground-below-canopy sensors. There was no significant difference between grass-tree and leaf-litter temperatures: in both microhabitats, daily temperature variation was reduced, day temperatures were 1–5°C cooler, night temperatures were 0.5–3°C warmer, and maximum temperatures were up to 14.4°C lower, compared to ground-below-canopy sensors. Grass-tree and leaf-litter microhabitats moderated heat increase at an average rate of 0.24°C temperature per 1°C increase of ambient temperature in the ground-below-canopy microhabitat. The average daily variation in temperature was determined by the type (grass-tree and leaf-litter versus ground-below-canopy) of microhabitat (explaining 67%), the amount of canopy cover and the area of the vegetation fragment (together explaining almost 10% of the variation). Greater canopy cover increased the amount of microclimatic moderation provided, especially in the leaf-litter. Our study highlights the importance of microhabitats in moderating macroclimatic conditions. However, this moderating effect is currently not considered in species distribution modelling under anthropogenic climate change nor in the management of vegetation. This shortcoming will have to be addressed to obtain realistic forecasts of future species distributions and to achieve effective management of biodiversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between the Mediterranean 500-hPa storm tracks and wet season (November-April) rainfall over Saudi Arabia is investigated. The analysis is based on the application of an objective tracking scheme to the 6-hourly 500-hPa geopotential height ERA-Interim dataset (0.75° × 0.75°) for the period 1979-2012. The resulting tracks are then associated with the ERA-Interim rainfall events over Saudi Arabia. The association procedure showed that 34 % of the tracks are related to about 70 % of the rainfall. These associated tracks are used to construct climatology. A climatology of these storm tracks revealed that the eastern Mediterranean region is the preferred location for cyclogenesis with a maximum in the southwest parts of the Black Sea. The study also examined the mean radius, average intensity and average depth of the storms. The number of tracks in winter (December-February) is about 60 % of the total number which confirms the major contribution of the Mediterranean storms to rainfall over Saudi Arabia. A significant negative trend was found for storm cyclogenesis over the central Mediterranean, and the Black sea. A significant trend decrease in track density is observed over most of the northern parts of Saudi Arabia. The peaks of storm activities are observed in December and January in 1996, 1997 and 2009. Storm activity generally declines after 2000, especially in the second half of the wet season months (February-April). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sea turtles are vulnerable to climate change impacts in both their terrestrial (nesting beach) and oceanic habitats. From 1982 to 2012, air and sea surface temperatures at major high use foraging and nesting regions (n = 5) of loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) nesting in Greece have steadily increased. Here, we update the established relationships between sea surface temperature and nesting data from Zakynthos (latitude: 37.7°N), a major nesting beach, while also expanding these analyses to include precipitation and air temperature and additional nesting data from two other key beaches in Greece: Kyparissia Bay (latitude: 37.3°N) and Rethymno, Crete (latitude: 35.4°N). We confirmed that nesting phenology at Zakynthos has continued to be impacted by breeding season temperature; however, temperature has no consistent relationship with nest numbers, which are declining on Zakynthos and Crete but increasing at Kyparissia. Then using statistically downscaled outputs of 14 climate models assessed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), we projected future shifts in nesting for these populations. Based on the climate models, we projected that temperature at the key foraging and breeding sites (Adriatic Sea, Aegean Sea, Crete, Gulf of Gabès and Zakynthos/Kyparissia Bay; overall latitudinal range: 33.0°—45.8°N) for loggerhead turtles nesting in Greece will rise by 3–5°C by 2100. Our calculations indicate that the projected rise in air and ocean temperature at Zakynthos could cause the nesting season in this major rookery to shift to an earlier date by as much as 50–74 days by 2100. Although an earlier onset of the nesting season may provide minor relief for nest success as temperatures rise, the overall climatic changes to the various important habitats will most likely have an overall negative impact on this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In being at the base of the marine food web, phytoplankton is particularly important for marine ecosystem functioning (e.g., biodiversity). Strong anthropization, over-exploitation of natural resources, and climate change affect the natural amount of phytoplankton and, therefore, represent a continuous threat to the biodiversity in marine waters. In particular, a concerning risks for coastal waters is the increase in nutrient inputs of terrestrial/anthropogenic origin that can lead to undesirable modifications of phytoplankton concentration (i.e., eutrophication). Monitoring chlorophyll (Chl) concentration, which is a proxy of phytoplankton biomass, is an efficient tool for recording and understanding the response of the marine ecosystem to human pressures and thus for detecting eutrophication. Here, we compute Chl trends over the Mediterranean Sea by using satellite data, also highlighting the fact that remote sensing may represent an efficient and reliable solution to synoptically control the “good environmental status” (i.e., the Marine Directive to achieve Good Environmental Status of EU marine waters by 2020) and to assess the application of international regulations and environmental directives. Our methodology includes the use of an ad hoc regional (i.e., Mediterranean) algorithm for Chl concentration retrieval, also accounting for the difference between offshore (i.e., Case I) and coastal (i.e., Case II) waters. We apply the Mann-Kendall test and the Sens’s method for trend estimation to the Chl concentration de-seasonalized monthly time series, as obtained from the X-11 technique. We also provide a preliminary analysis of some particular trends by evaluating their associated inter-annual variability. The high spatial resolution of our approach allows a clear identification of intense trends in those coastal waters that are affected by river outflows. We do not attempt to attribute the observed trends to specific anthropogenic events. However, the trends that we document are consistent with the findings of several previous studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Republic of Croatia is renowned for its natural beauty and mild Mediterranean climate. The consequences are significant tourism revenues each year which is why the tourism is considered as the most important activity. However, tourism is a specific activity that occurs seasonally (at certain time of the year). It would therefore be interesting to analyze how much can tourism revenues distributed throughout the entire financial year contribute to financial result presented in financial statements, that is, to analyze whether their impact on profitability ratios is above average. The main aim of this research is to compare financial performance of listed companies which belong to accommodation and food service activities on one side and financial performance of companies from all other activities on another side. Intention of the research is to determine the financial potential of tourism listed companies. Sample consists of non-financial companies in Republic of Croatia listed on Zagreb Stock Exchange (ZSE) which are divided into two subsamples. First subsample consists of companies which belong to accommodation and food service activities and second subsample comprises companies from other activities. Activities are classified according to National Classification of Activities. Statistical analysis will be applied on financial data collected from financial statements publicly available on ZSE official website. Sample includes non-financial companies and excludes banks, insurance companies and other financial companies due to their particularities in comparison with non-financial companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]