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Nature-based solutions (NBS) for climate change adaptation and natural hazard management are receiving much attention in Europe and across the world. It is now seen broadly as a valid measure to manage flood risk sustainably whilst providing significant multiple benefits. However, there is little information regarding its implementation and cost-effectiveness in reducing flood hazard at the watershed scale. This work focuses on NBS for flood risk management along with its challenges, opportunities and advancement. A comprehensive list of NBS used against flood risks was reviewed and the four best NBS – which are effective and economical under current and future climate change scenarios were selected based on multi-criteria decision-making process, and their suitability were tested through physical modelling. The design, optimal allocation and implementation procedures as well as the cost-benefit analyses were presented for the individual NBS. Probability distribution function (GEV model) was used to perform cost-benefit analysis (total expected cost including damage and construction) and flood estimation with and without NBS in place. The analyses showed that the performance and cost-effectiveness of NBS was lesser for short duration while the net benefits increased with time and became higher for the long duration. We formulated a recommended protocol based on the identified challenges, gaps and success for designing robust and effective NBS, its implementation, monitoring, evaluation, uptake and replication which could inform engineers, landscape architects, city planners, policy/decision-makers. This study builds up solid evidence base showcasing the benefits of flood NBS ensuring long-term sustainability and supply of ecosystem-services.

Quiet skies in recent months have accentuated public awareness of noise. It’s as noticeable when it’s not there as when it is present. Hence, as the air travel industry gets ready to reboot, it’s now more important than ever that Europe’s high-level targets of reducing noise (and vibration, collectively referred to as N&V in the industry) are brought into focus. This project has received funding from the Clean Sky 2 Joint Undertaking (JU) under grant agreement No 945583. The JU receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and the Clean Sky 2 JU members other than the Union. The results, opinions, conclusions, etc. presented in this work are those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily represent the position of the JU; the JU is not responsible for any use made of the information contained herein.

This is part of H2020 HELMET Project

In this work, the development of an energy recovery control unit to be incorporated in the light-emitting diodes (LEDs) lighting systems of heavy-duty vehicles is presented. This innovative industrial product adopts modern power electronics technology to improve existing trucks' LED lighting system by eliminating the so far inevitable power consumption by the conventional central control unit of the majority of these vehicles, which is obligatory for the uninterruptable operation of their lighting system. The main idea of this innovative product is its capability to virtually increase the lighting system power consumption without actually consuming this amount of energy, thus facilitating the central control unit requirements regarding these vehicles in an energy-conscious way. Under this light, a mature power converter's topology is employed to draw the proper amounts of power from the vehicle's batteries supply, to the level that the central control unit recognizes, and return this energy back to the batteries. The tests results of the developed industrial product highlight the energy saving potential of the proposed energy recovery scheme, while the Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) results confirm its techno-economical and environmental profit for the truck applications under study.

Multifunctional Aquatic Drones for surface waters (MaqD) is an operational tool, a "Water-mark" for "live,online dynamic monitoring" of aquatic environments in-situ. For surface running water, for lakes and / oroffshore, MAqD in the image below represents a radically new approach for in-situ robust, reliable andenvironmentally responsible water monitoring.

This is part of H2020 HELMET Project

The objective of our research is to investigate new digital techniques and tools, offering the audience innovative, attractive, enhanced and accessible experiences. The project focuses on performing arts, particularly theatre, aiming at designing, implementing, experimenting and evaluating technologies and tools that expand the semiotic code of a performance by offering new opportunities and aesthetic means in stage art and by introducing parallel accessible narrative flows. In our novel paradigm, modern technologies emphasize the stage elements providing a multilevel, intense and immersive theatrical experience. Moreover, lighting, video projections, audio clips and digital characters are incorporated, bringing unique aesthetic features. We also attempt to remove sensory and language barriers faced by some audiences. Accessibility features consist of subtitles, sign language and audio description. The project emphasises on natural language processing technologies, embedded communication and multimodal interaction to monitor automatically the time flow of a performance. Based on this, pre-designed and directed stage elements are being mapped to appropriate parts of the script and activated automatically by using the virtual "world" and appropriate sensors, while accessibility flows are dynamically synchronized with the stage action. The tools above are currently adapted within two experimental theatrical plays for validation purposes. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

This deliverable is part of H2020 HELMET Project.&nbsp

Addressing Governance Issues inNBS Implementation through aNovel Co creation Process

This document is the deliverable D2.3 System Requirement Specifications (with traceability matrix) which describes systems requirements for HELMET (High integrity EGNSS Layer for Multimodal Eco-friendly Transportation) solution from viewpoint of high-accuracy and high-integrity EGNSS applications in rail (RAIL) and automotive (AUTO) sectors. The HELMET is mainly focused on ERTMS and automated car driving and supported by Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Systems (UAV, UAS) in terms of infrastructure inspection, infrastructure assets monitoring, traffic management, etc. The main HELMET objectives are: 1) to develop a cyber-secured multimodal, multi-sensor integrity monitoring architecture based on EGNSS to introduce High Integrity Location Determination System (LDS) for trains, automobiles and Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS/RPAS) automation with the later aggregating the demand of IMTM (Inspection, Monitoring and Traffic Management) for rail and road assets and operations, 2) to assess the system performance by a Proof-of-Concept (PoC), and finally 3) to draw a roadmap for exploitation and future standardization and certification of HELMET results in terms of (a) the designed multi-modal augmentation and integrity monitoring architecture, and (b) high integrity and accuracy OBU algorithms fully customized for land transportation (rail and road) and supporting aerial operations. The system requirement specifications started from the HELMET WP2 CONOPS (Concept of Operations) delivered within the D2.2 document and used for definition and justification of high-level user requirements for RAIL, AUTO and UAV user groups. The purpose of the HELMET CONOPS was to describe the operational needs, views, visions, expectations and high-level requirements of the user’s groups without provision of technical details on HELMET. On the contrary, the intention of this deliverable (D2.3) was to specify detailed technical requirements needed for the HELMET Architecture Design, which is the subject of the Work Package 3. The System Requirements Specification process employed within the HELMET Task 2.2. was based on following activities: • HELMET CONOPS development; • High-level User Requirements specification (as a result of CONOPS); • Identification of general constrains and limitations; • Specification of Logical Concepts and Models for the User’s groups; • Safety analysis for the Logical Concepts for multi-modal applications; • Development of Requirements Traceability Matrices (RTMs) for the maim HELMET User’s groups (RAIL, AUTO, UAVs); • Description and justification of individual Systems Requirements; • Specification of Systems Requirements for High-Level HELMET architecture. The Requirements Traceability Matrices for the individual user’s groups were developed for mapping links and dependences between the high-level User Requirements (D2.1) and the System Requirements in order to facilitate, make transparent and justify the System Requirements Specification process. The specified System Requirements are summarised in Section 5. Section 6 outlines a high-level HELMET architecture with the key safety measures. The architecture will be further developed in detail within WP3. The related RTMs for RAIL, AUTO and UAVs applications and GNSS Augmentation are included in Section 7.

OAL Greece ArcGIS Storymap

This is part of H2020 HELMET Project

This document is the deliverable D2.1 HELMET User Requirements which describes High-level User requirements for HELMET (High integrity EGNSS Layer for Multimodal Eco-friendly Transportation) solution from viewpoint of high-accuracy and high-integrity EGNSS applications in rail (RAIL) and automotive (AUTO) sectors, mainly focused on ERTMS and automated car driving and supported by Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Systems (UAV, UAS) from viewpoint of infrastructure inspection, infrastructure assets monitoring, traffic management, etc. The main HELMET objectives are: 1) to develop a cyber-secured multimodal, multi-sensor integrity monitoring architecture based on EGNSS to introduce High Integrity Location Determination System (LDS) for trains, automobiles and Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS/RPAS) automation with the later aggregating the demand of IMTM (Inspection, Monitoring and Traffic Management) rail and road assets and operations. 2) To assess the system performance by a Proof-of-Concept (PoC), and finally 3) to draw a roadmap for exploitation and future standardization and certification of HELMET results in terms of (a) the designed multi-modal augmentation and integrity monitoring architecture, and (b) high integrity and accuracy OBU algorithms fully customized for land transportation (rail and road) and aerial operations. The high-level user requirements for HELMET solution presented in this deliverable were developed within so-called CONOPS (Concept of Operations) activities which were performed early at the beginning of the system lifecycle (IEC 61508, EN 50126, etc.). The purpose of the HELMET CONOPS is to describe the operational needs, views, visions and expectations of the user’s groups without provision of technical details on HELMET. The CONPOS is written in user language and generally represents a set of user requirements. HELMET CONOPS (deliverable D2.2) specifies and justifies high-level user requirements for RAIL, AUTO and UAV user groups. It means that the high-level user requirements specified in this deliverable (D2.1) have been extracted from already available deliverable D2.2 (CONOPS). The HELMET CONOPS will be then used for derivation of more detailed system requirements, which will be described and justified in the deliverable D2.3. Derivation of requirements for AUTO and RAIL started from the conclusions of the GNSS User Consultation Platform (UCP) organised by GSA. Most demanding operational scenarios from viewpoint of accuracy and integrity were selected and the high-level user requirements for HELMET solution were specified in more details and justified. Regarding the use of UAVs in land transport, a thorough analysis of the user's requirements was carried out on the basis of a literature review. This is because the use of UAVs is a new field where there is not too much experience in specifying requirements, as it is e.g. on rail. The resulting user requirements for RAIL, AUTO, UAVs are summarized in the tables for the sake of clarity. Each request is provided with a code that begins with the letters UR (User Requirements) followed by a serial number. It is evident from the tables that the most demanding requirements for HELMET position determination solution are for automated car driving. The Appendix contains some considerations and analyses regarding Protection Level of velocity and Technical System Error for AUTO applications, which will be further utilised for system requirements specifications in the deliverable D2.3.

The presentation outlines the co-design, development and evaluation of Nature-Based Solutions applied to the Spercheios river basin in Central Greece. The Spercheios river is generally susceptible to fluvial flooding. Flood events occur regularly, exceeding the channel capacity, affecting most elements of the socio-economic life in the affected area. Two Natural Water Retention Measures were implemented that encompass restoration and stabilization of the river banks, re-meandering, cleaning the bed material load, widening of the river bed and recreational landscaping, resulting in two in-line water reservoirs, regulating water flow for flood mitigation and diverting surplus water flows to nearby irrigation networks.

In this paper, an outline of NTUA’s work in the framework of project INTELLICONT is presented. We describe the current state of the air-cargo handling procedures and how the autonomous system that is under development is going to simplify these and increase the overall efficiency. Important issues and challenges regarding the system’s development are discussed and a preliminary design of the novel robotic platform is given. The main tasks of this platform include the autonomous motion and locking of containers with mass exceeding one tone, avoiding at the same time obstacles and surpassing terrain discontinuities. Information regarding the selected actuators and other key electrical components, such as motor drivers and sensors are provided also. The architecture of the embedded system and the specifications of the selected Central Control Unit are described, as well as the integration of the motor drivers, sensors and other peripherals with the Robot Operating System (ROS). Further details on the development of a high accuracy localization system, which is mandatory to lock the container safely to the corresponding positions are provided also. In addition, we give details regarding the locking mechanism with integrated monitoring functionalities, an important part of the system. Simulation experiments validate the selected position controller and key system specifications are highlighted based on results. Finally, recent prototype experiments conducted to verify the localization system are presented.