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The conservation of natural resources is indispensable for supporting sustainable development. Water–Energy–Food–Ecosystem (WEFE) nexus management is widely acknowledged as the utmost priority of our time. Considering the specificities of the different nexus sectors, conflicting views of sustainability may arise from different stakeholders. This paper presents and analyses an effective stakeholders' participation strategy aiming at identifying WEFE challenges in the Pinios River Basin (PRB), the most agriculturally productive and natural resource-stressed basin of Greece. The presented methodology was developed in the context of a Learning and Action Alliance (LAA) scheme adopted by the H2020 REXUS project, intended to support resilient nexus system management with the engagement of stakeholders. The proposed comprehensive methodology comprises multiple phases, including "framing", "mapping", "involvement", "co-production", and "sharing" phases. The involvement phase is the most interactive one, including the organisation and outputs of efficient crowdsourcing theme sessions organised in the framework of the first REXUS PRB stakeholders' workshop. This paper illustrates and analyses stakeholders' perceptions regarding nexus status in the PRB and reveals the most critical challenges in the pilot basin, along with their interdependencies and correlations. The determination of nexus challenges insights by stakeholders could significantly contribute to redefining policies so that they align with sustainable development aims. This methodology is proposed to form the baseline strategy in stakeholders' engagement for future nexus management studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-actor labs (MALs), a form of real-world social experiments, were implemented in three coastal-rural regions in France (Charente River Basin), Spain (Mar Menor), and Greece (South-West Messinia) to better assess and tackle coastal-rural interactions that govern local sustainability challenges, such as water use conflicts and biodiversity degradation. The MALs used pan:icipative methodologies based on systems thinking and transition management. Stakeholders were continuously engaged in a series of workshops to co-produce knowledge, reach a common understanding of the sustainability challenges and issues at stake, and co-design solutions in the form of roadmap for sustainable transitions in coastal-rural regions. This paper evaluates MALs to provide examples of successful sustainability transition experiments based on the outputs produced, outcomes achieved, and processes used in the three coastal, rural regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bottom-up management in a catchment scale is deemed the optimal way to avoid conflicts among water users through the participation of stakeholders, strategy co-shaping, and solutions co-creation. Water management cannot be one-dimensional; it demands cross sectoral cooperation. Usually, the difficulty lies in proper stakeholder training and inclusion of their opinions, which should be used in a quantifiable manner in water management. The Laspias River watershed occupies an area of 221.8 km2 that includes the River Basin District of Thrace; it is characterized by intense agricultural and industrial activity. To comply with the augmented water needs and pollution loads this research aims to utilize a hybrid intuitionistic fuzzy multi-criteria-based methodology to address respectfully stakeholders' opinion, this research aims to utilize a hybrid intuitionistic fuzzy multi-criteria-based methodology. It is often difficult to manage planning water management measures as the problems include multiple (conflicting) criteria that are based on stakeholder's opinions, which are usually imprecise and in a rather qualitative form. This study provides the mathematical tools to reach comprehensive decisions with the public involvement offering a practical solution in an existing problem, that is the proper inclusion of stakeholders' opinion. The weights are produced based on a stakeholder's opinion. The alternatives' ranking is achieved based on the fuzzified intuitionistic version of the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), and a hierarchy of mitigation problems is achieved via this novel approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural abandonment and associated rapid urbanization, agricultural intensification, and climate change have been key factors transforming terrestrial landscapes, with significant impacts on the environmental quality and the ecosystem services (ES) provided to human welfare. In this study, two understudied rural river basins located in Thrace, North Greece, were selected to assess changes in landscape pattern, composition, and eco-environmental quality and ecosystem services values (ESV). Cloud-based remote sensing (RS) analyses of multitemporal Landsat imagery in the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform were applied for multitemporal land use/land cover changes (LULCC) quantification between 1984–2021, along with landscape pattern, eco-environmental quality, and ES assessment. Although ecosystem changes observed were not extensive over this period, eco-environmental quality appeared to be affected due to fragmentation. Preserving the ecosystem's naturalness can enhance cultural ES to avoid further values loss originating from provisioning ES exploitation. This study highlights the strong connection between landscape configuration and eco-environmental quality, emphasizing the strong impact that anthropogenic activities have on the environment. The monitoring of the effects of LULCC on ecosystem health and the economic value of ES is crucial for the introduction of spatial planning and restoration policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) represent an important input of contaminants in the environment. Therefore, it is critical to continuously monitor the performance of WWTPs to take appropriate action and avoid an influx of contaminants in the environment. In this study, a battery of seven in vitro bioassays covering a selected spectrum of toxicity effects is proposed for quality control of wastewater effluents. The bioassays address mixture toxicity, which is the combined adverse effect of multiple contaminants and can act as an early warning system. The proposed battery was applied to samples from 11 WWTPs of representative technology from the Danube River Basin (DRB). The order of toxic effects in terms of extent of exceedance of effect-based trigger values (EBTs) was PAH (PAH activity) > PXR (xenobiotic metabolism) > ERα (estrogenic activity) > PPARγ > Nrf2 (oxidative stress) > anti-AR > GR. A mitigation plan for WWTP operators based on EBT exceedance is proposed. This study demonstrates that the proposed effect-based monitoring battery is a complementary tool to the chemical analysis approach. A regular application of such time- and cost-effective bioanalytical tools in the WWTPs of the DRB is proposed to provide a 'safety net' for aquatic ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) is a well-established eco-hydrological model that has been extensively applied to watersheds across the globe. This work reviews over two decades (2002–2022) of SWAT studies conducted on Mediterranean watersheds. A total of 260 articles have been identified since the earliest documented use of the model in a Mediterranean catchment back in 2002; of which 62% were carried out in Greece, Italy, or Spain. SWAT applications increased significantly in recent years since 86% of the reviewed papers were published in the past decade. A major objective for most of the reviewed works was to check the applicability of SWAT to specific watersheds. A great number of publications included procedures of calibration and validation and reported performance results. SWAT applications in the Mediterranean region mainly cover water resources quantity and quality assessment and hydrologic and environmental impacts evaluation of land use and climate changes. Nevertheless, a tendency towards a multi-purpose use of SWAT is revealed. The numerous examples of SWAT combined with other tools and techniques outline the model's flexibility. Several studies performed constructive comparisons between Mediterranean watersheds' responses or compared SWAT to other models or methods. The effects of inputs on SWAT outputs and innovative model modifications and improvements were also the focus of some of the surveyed articles. However, a significant number of studies reported difficulties regarding data availability, as these are either scarce, have poor resolution or are not freely available. Therefore, it is highly recommended to identify and develop accurate model inputs and testing data to optimize the SWAT performance. [Display omitted] • SWAT review on Mediterranean hydro-climatic studies. • Lack of SWAT assessment on Mediterranean catchments. • A comparison of data from different Mediterranean basins. • Enhancing data availability for SWAT applications. • Developing a comprehensive knowledge of Mediterranean watersheds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The modern drainage systems of the fold and thrust belt of the external Hellenide orogen of NW Greece are principally orogen-parallel. Late Quaternary changes in river courses have resulted from neotectonic deformation associated with the Katouna–Stamna fault and with footwall uplift in developing transverse grabens. This study assesses the impact of neotectonic deformation on river patterns and basin deposition. River sands show differences in modal abundance and varietal geochemistry of heavy minerals and fine sand lithic clasts, determined by scanning electron microscope, that allow identification of past river supply to raised fluvial terrace and beach deposits. In the past 200 ka, footwall uplift south of developing grabens at Lake Trichonis and the Amvrakikos Gulf promoted orogen-transverse flow, diverting the Arachthos-Louros rivers to the west, causing reversal of drainage to the north in the lower reach of the Acheloos River. A raised terrace gravel south of Preveza records the southwestward flow of a large paleo-Arachthos river, confirmed by sand petrology in beaches farther south on the Echinadon Sea coast. The use of varietal heavy minerals and lithic clasts is a rapid and powerful tool for tracking tectonically-induced changes in river patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proactive sustainable management of scarce water across vulnerable agricultural areas of South Europe is a timely issue of major importance, especially under the recent challenges affecting complex water systems. The Basin District of Thessaly, Greece's driest rural region, has a long history of multiple issues of an environmental, planning, economic or administrative nature, as well as a history of conflict. For the first time, the region's key-stakeholders, including scientists and policymakers, participated in tactical meetings during the 19-month project "Water For Tomorrow". The goal was to establish a common and holistic understanding of the problems, assess the lessons learned from the failures of the past and co-develop a list of policy recommendations, placing them in the broader context of sustainability. These refer to enhanced and transparent information, data, accountability, cooperation/communication among authorities and stakeholders, capacity building, new technologies and modernization of current practices, reasonable demand and supply management, flexible renewable energy portfolios and circular approaches, among others. This work has significant implications for the integrated water resources management of similar south-European cases, including the Third-Cycle of the River Basin Management Plans and the International Sustainability Agendas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a series of field surveys were carried out along the Nestos River watershed (NE Greece) to assess the influence of two hydropower dams (Thissavros and Platanovrisi) upon the hydrology, hydrochemistry and nutrients stoichiometry of the river. Results showed that Nestos hydrology, downstream of the reservoirs, is entirely governed by the man-induced hydropower-driven dam retention/release policy. Dams' operation increased the retention of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) and total suspended solids (TSS) significantly, affecting their downstream fluxes, even under water release regime. On the contrary, dams' construction and operation did not seem to influence the downstream fluxes of dissolved inorganic phosphorus (DIP) and silica (DSi), although these elements also depended on the releasing policy. DIN retention, combined with the dependence of DIP to the water level of Thissavros, resulted in alteration of the N:P ratio at the downstream part. Almost all nutrients were stored at the bottom layer of Thissavros reservoir, especially under the summer stratification regime. Platanovrisi reservoir acts as a buffer zone between Thissavros and the Nestos downstream part. Anoxic conditions in the reservoirs favour the transformation of nitrates into ammonia and the remineralization of phosphorus from sediments, creating a degraded environment for freshwater fauna. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alluvial fan and terrace formation is traditionally interpreted as a fluvial system response to Quaternary climate oscillations under the backdrop of slow and steady tectonic activity. However, several recent studies challenge this conventional wisdom, showing that such landforms can evolve rapidly as a geomorphic system responds to catastrophic and stochastic events, like large-magnitude mass wasting. Here, we contribute to this topic through a detailed field, geochronological, and numerical modelling investigation of thick (>50 m) alluvial sequences in the Klados catchment in southwestern Crete, Greece. The Klados River catchment lies in a Mediterranean climate, is largely floored by carbonate bedrock, and is characterised by well-preserved alluvial terraces and inset fans at the river mouth that exceed the volumes of alluvial deposits in neighbouring catchments of similar size. Previous studies interpreted the genesis and evolution of these deposits to result from a combination of Pleistocene sea-level variation and the region's long-term tectonic activity. We show that the >20 m thick lower fan unit, previously thought to be late Pleistocene in age, unconformably buries a paleoshoreline uplifted in the first centuries CE, placing the depositional age of this unit firmly in the late Holocene. The depositional timing is supported by seven new radiocarbon dates that indicate middle to late Holocene ages for the entire fan and terrace sequence. Furthermore, we report new evidence of a previously unidentified valley-filling landslide deposit that is locally 100 m above the modern stream elevation, and based on cross-cutting relationships, it predates the alluvial sequence. Observations indicate the highly erodible landslide deposit as the source of the alluvial fill sediment. We identify the likely landslide detachment area as a large rockfall scar at the steepened head of the catchment. A landslide volume of 9.08×107 m 3 is estimated based on volume reconstructions of the mapped landslide deposit and the inferred scar location. We utilise landslide runout modelling to validate the hypothesis that a high-magnitude rockfall would pulverise and send material downstream, filling the valley up to ∼100 m. This partial liquefaction is required for the rockfall to form a landslide body of the extent observed in the valley and is consistent with the sedimentological characteristics of the landslide deposit. Based on the new age control and the identification of the landslide deposit, we hypothesise that the rapid post-landslide aggradation and incision cycles of the alluvial deposits are not linked to long-term tectonic uplift or climate variations but rather stochastic events such as mobilisation of sediment in large earthquakes, storm events, or ephemeral blockage in the valley's narrow reaches. The Klados case study represents a model environment for how stochastically driven events can mimic climate-induced sedimentary archives and lead to deposition of thick alluvial sequences within hundreds to thousands of years, and it illustrates the ultrasensitivity of mountainous catchments to external perturbations after catastrophic events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]