Hi, there are a lot of works about Greece by Luca Salvati (CNR-CRA, Italy) and his Greek colleagues. Mostly working on urban geography and development, demography, fires, landscape and land degradation in Greece (and particularly Athens and some islands), you may find insightful ideas particularly in relation to risk. 

In terms of vulnerability and resilience, I would suggest some works by K. Sapountzaki and colleagues, mainly on Athens and Attica region. There should be also some research projects with comparative studies of Greece and other European areas.

In stricter terms of DRR (mainly tsunami, if I well remember), you may check some works by Dale Dominey-Howes and colleagues, University of Sydney. In the past years has extensively worked on human and physical aspects of DRR in Greece.

Hope this helps.

Regards

Giuseppe

Here is a project (FLIRE: http://www.flire.eu/en/) for the successfully development of an early warning system for flood and fire risk assessment and management in Greece. If you have 20 min time, see this interesting video related to the project (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3h4Sw1x28I&feature=youtu.be, in Greek)

Hello Gerard,

 In your extensive analysis you did not include the fact that the Greek population is well educated and aware of the natural dangers that hit all too common for millennia. Although the country is short of money, many research projects are funded from EE and elsewhere, so there is not a big increase of risks since 2008.  You see some of the projects mentioned above.

For example, the Greek people were well aware of tsunamis before Dec. 2004, unlike most of the rest of the world. I think Greek people are better prepared than those in Canada by comparison. In the last 10 years or so the federal funding for anything to do with the environment including research at universities in Canada has been severely CUT to avoid people get the facts on weather, natural disasters, etc. The reason is the government has been extremely pro-fossil fuel with a “forget the environment” attitude (also was the only country to officially return its signature from the Kyoto Protocol).  The result is a big problem for preparedness in a developed country and a worry for those trying to educate the public/schools, etc

Dear Guiseppe, Luca and Michael,

I thank you for providing insightful references to explore some of the questions I asked myself and wished to enquire about on RG.

I have no doubt neither regarding the in-depth expertise of our Greek colleagues nor concerning the resilience of our Greek brothers and sisters generally.

Yet thus far we have not heard back from any Greek scientists.

What would they like to share about the situation on the ground ?

My hunch is that no one knows it as well as they do, as this is their daily bread.

Assuming our Greek friends may be as well prepared as you seem to  imply, one may want to remind oneself about what happened in Iceland in 2010 or indeed in Banda Aceh.

Icelandic scientists are amongst the leading experts in volcanology worldwide  and in managing their own natural hazards generally. They also have had to live with a long history of disasters spanning the entire history of Iceland itself, which began a little over 1000 years ago.

When the Eyjafjallajokull eruption did occur in 2010, in Iceland, our colleagues coped extremely craftfully with the crisis which was not such a big deal for them in Iceland itself.

Yet, somehow geo-disasters know how to ignore human borders. And in risk quantification, the human factors seem to make up the largest portion of the uncertainties. Up to not very long ago, such factors were not even considered at all from a quantitative viewpoint and it seems to me that  it remains debatable whether any quantification including human aspects of risk, say when a volcanic eruption occurs, have yet been rigorously accounted for ?

The Kolumbos Bank Volcano is not monitored, as far as I know, due to lack of means for this, currently in Greece.

Who is to tell us with confidence (and proof to back it up) that it cannot cause havock to international air traffic as the EFJ 2010 eruption did, if it erupts explosively as in 1650 in the near-future ? 

During the Banda Aceh crisis, in the USA the tsunami was tracked as it developped, yet this did not prevent 300,000 fatalities and a huge impact upon already vulnerable populations in a number of countries.

The larger the expected disaster, the wider a close-knit cooperation and generally disaster preparedness system needs to be in place and needs to have been fully implemented and tested long prior to the disaster. The bigger the potential disaster, the longer it may take to set this up, arguably.

Has there been a mock exercice across the Mediterranean for the scenario of a major tsunami triggered on one of the Greek Islands (such as Santorini, nearest to the shallow-marine Kolumbos Bank) ?

 In case, other major disasters should occur in continental Greece (eg. a very large tectonic earthquake), now arguably with a much larger fraction of its population vulnerable to a diversity of natural hazards, one impact may be a significant rapid population migration within Greece and/or from Greece to neighbouring EU countries. I am not arguing that the earthquake physical parameters may well be documented in Greece and in a number of other countries. The question is: have any provisions, and sufficient provisions, been made in these neighbouring countries to be able to cope with the sudden flux of migrants, or would Greece itself  be capable of coping with a large number of victims from a very large tectonic earthquake ?

I have spoken to Greek social helpers in Greece who have told me harrowing stories about how even some university professors have become homeless. Clearly the entire Greek population is not experiencing such tragedy. Yet I find it difficult to believe that for at least a substantial fraction of the Greek population that vulnerability would not have increased at all. And until I see any studies having assessed all this in some depth, I am afraid I shall not be convinced by anything I am told.

While I am happy to hear that much excellent research is still being pursued in Greece no doubt, I would very much like to hear back from a diversity of Greek scientists.

With best wishes and kindest regards,

Gerald

Hello dear friends,

Please note that we still have not heard anything from any Greek colleagues.

As for myself, I find this odd.

Our Greek colleagues are expert in this. Surely they have the answers.

Is my question so poorly formulated ?

How come no one has replied yet from Greece on this ?

It has been a while now that this question has been posted ?

Kindest regards to all, especially to our Greek colleagues,

Gerald

Hello everyone,

I have chekced that considerable advances in the past decade or so have been made by Greek and other scientists in relation to the diversity of hazards posed by volcanic or tectonic activity around Santorini and around the Kolumbos Bank volcano.

In a nutshell, one could summarize by saying that the volcanic, tectonic and tsunami risks are significant. It seems to suggest to me that the question posed is thus a relevant one.

I am all the more surprised that we have not heard any reply from our Greek colleagues on this forum. It has now been 2 weeks since the start of the discussion and there has been plenty of time to do so. (There is certainly no criticism or judgement from me in this statement.)

I am not certain as to how to read this ?

Can one conclude that our Greek colleagues are reluctant to reply as this would involve criticising EU research funding policy ?

And risk diminishing the chances of future funding from the EU ?

On the one hand, assuming this reading may be correct, I would understand that colleagues may be fearful to express themselves freely when it comes to funding.

On the other hand, assuming that there may be new concerns since 2008 in relation to vulnerability to geohazards or their continued monitoring or disaster preparedness aspects, would it not be better to express possible concerns openly for at least two reasons:

1. Not expressing new concerns may in itself lead to increased risks and increased vulnerabilities....to potential disasters ?

2. The context of the after 2008 financial crisis and its impacts generates an opportunity for novel research, eg. with the view of assessing to what extent it may affect vulnerabilities, risks  and perhaps of using this to identify ways of developing integrated risk models that would evolve towards more closely quantifying and linking the diverse human factors affecting risk ?

Developing integrated (multi-)risk models has been the object of several EU calls in the last 10 years, so identifying an opportunity for novel research that would allow to advance this may interest the EU DG Environment and lead to new funding potentially, it seems to me.

As most of you may know, the contact person regarding such possibilities at the EU is Denis Peter. So in case some of you believe that there may be a funding opportunity to explore setting up with the EU, I would suggest contacting Denis and discussing this with him.

I'll leave you with these reflections.

With best wishes and kind regards to everyone,

Gerald