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In this paper, an integrated framework for the design of an electricity supply system for an isolated grid, promoting renewable energy sources (RES) in the context of distributed generation (DG) is developed. To this end, eight (8) alternative scenarios are developed with different percentage of RES penetration and several evaluation criteria considered that included economic, environmental, technical, social, and legislative issues. The scenarios are comparatively evaluated by means of the weighted summation method where the relevant criteria weights are determined through the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Special attention is given in the optimal placement of RES facilities using Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and the way to model the criteria via related environmental software. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Protected designations of origin (PDOs) and protected geographical indications (PGIs) are an important aspect of the recent turn towards quality agri-food products in the EU. However, their actual impact on rural development is not clear. This paper contributes to the debate over the impact of PDOs and PGIs by focusing on Ladotyri Mytilinis PDO, a cheese produced exclusively on Lesvos island, Greece. The socio-economic and environmental impact of Ladotyri Mytilinis PDO is based on findings from two field researches. Secondary data by the National Statistical Service of Greece and by other sources are also used. According to the findings the impact of Ladotyri Mytilinis PDO cheese, and of its various actors that construct its supply chain, is on the one hand very important for Lesvos island but on the other hand not radically different when compared to the impact of Graviera, a close substitute and non-PDO cheese, which is also produced in the area by the same actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article engages with the relationship between the chronopolitics of mobility and migrants' narratives of the past, their present suffering, and hope for the future. Data collected through observation and repeat interviews with migrants in the Moria and Kara Tepe camps in Lesvos, Greece, challenge the assumption that 'time' spent waiting in the camps by illegalized migrants represents a linear and singular metanarrative of the migrant in 'temporal suspension' from the 'grid of modernity'. I suggest, that the concept of historical time allows for a critical analysis of illegalized migrants' narratives of their past lives, their present suffering and future aspirations, through which they challenge the chronopolitics of control inherent in the current EU migration system. While such narratives might at first sight be understood as accepting a migration system based on suspension and gradual re-introduction into western historical and political time, they present a challenge to the exceptionality of western modernity and their suspension from it. I also argue, that narratives of 'pasts', 'the present' and hope for the 'future', challenge academic discourses of migration that centre on the notion of 'bare life', where historical and political time is suspended in the liminal space of the camp. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on long term archaeological ethnography on the border island of Lesvos situated on Europe's margins, this article explores the regimes of eating and the role of food practices in the refugee camp/processing centre of Moria. Starting from the double liminality of eating and border-crossing, it outlines and juxtaposes two regimes of corporeal life. The first is the biopolitical arena of official food provision as produced by the border apparatus and the logic of humanitarian governmentality. This regulates border-crosser's time and daily routines and renders them 'people of concern', tress-passers or victimized individuals with no agency. The second is the affective, trans-corporeal, multi-sensorial field of cooking, eating, making kin, making community. It is produced through the agency of border-crossers themselves, when they take charge of their own eating. In doing so, they constitute eating in these liminal conditions as affirmative biopolitics, as the affirmative politics of life and hope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil microbial biomass carbon (Cmic) and nitrogen (Nmic) dynamics were studied in five representative land use of Mediterranean agroecosystems over two consecutive years on a seasonal basis on the island of Lesvos, Greece. Soil samples from natural forests, olive groves, wheat cultivations, pasture, and annual crop rotation were collected from plots that had been managed conventionally according to local practices. The Cmic and Nmic values ranged from 86.8 to 565.1 and from 14.7 to 101.6 mg kg-1 dry soil, respectively, being affected by both land use and season. Their average values increased in the order of arable < forest ≤ pasture. Similar to all land uses, Cmic and Nmic showed a significant, land-use dependence with seasonal variation. Specifically, summer minima and autumn maxima highlighted how hot and dry Mediterranean summers affect the activity of soil micro-organisms. Cmic to organic C (Corg) and Nmic to total N (Ntot) ratios ranged from 1.3 to 4.0 and 2.0 to 11.2, respectively, and were also affected by land use and season. Seasonal variation of Cmic to Corg and Nmic to Ntot ratios followed the general trend of Cmic and Nmic only in the land uses that do not incorporate crop residues. The Cmic: Nmic average ratio was 6.86 and was the only one soil microbial biomass parameter studied where seasonal variability exceeded land-use variability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The basic aim of this article is to briefly explore the links between socio-economic dynamics and desertification in western Lesvos, Greece. The area is characterised by certain socio-economic and development disadvantages, dependence on few productive sectors (mainly on livestock breeding) and by severe problems of land degradation and desertification. The linkages between socio-economic profile, characteristics and development trajectory with the state of environment in the area are identified through a series of in-depth qualitative interviews with local producers (livestock breeders). Research findings reveal the major socio-economic driving forces towards unsustainable productive practices, which contribute to the persistence of the problems of land degradation and desertification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mapping of hydrothermal alteration zones associated with epithermal gold deposits on the island of Lesvos in Greece has been carried out using Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) satellite and ground remote sensing data. The initial analysis of the satellite data using the minimum noise fraction, matched filter and spectral unmixing techniques identified the altered rock outcrops clearly. The identified pixels were almost completely contained within the highest grade alteration zones mapped by the field geologists. The analysis of the field spectroscopy data using two quantitative techniques, spectral angle mapper and cross-correlogram spectral matching, identified clearly the presence of high grade kaolinite and alunite outcrops. The further application of the matched filter and spectral unmixing techniques using the additional information from the field spectroscopy survey identified the outcrop of alunite and kaolinite quite clearly. This study indicates the ability of existing satellite data combined with atmospheric correction and novel image processing techniques to locate the regions of highest mineral prospectivity. The addition of a limited amount of field spectroscopy data into the processing of the satellite data suggests that two of the most diagnostic clay minerals can be differentiated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]