Figure 3 - available via license: CC BY
Content may be subject to copyright.
Source publication
Modern organized societies require robust infrastructures, among which hydraulic projects, such as water supply and drainage systems, are most important, particularly in water-scarce areas. Athens is a unique example because it is a big city (population 3.7 million) located in a very dry area. In order to support the development of the city, large...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... the 20th century Athens developed as the center of Greece (Figure 3), generating 47.3% of the Gross Domestic Product GDP of Greece [13]. Big capital investments were needed for the construction of modern infrastructure (e.g., Athens is the only city in Greece with a metro). ...
Context 2
... the 20th century Athens developed as the center of Greece (Figure 3), generating 47.3% of the Gross Domestic Product GDP of Greece [13]. Big capital investments were needed for the construction of modern infrastructure (e.g., Athens is the only city in Greece with a metro). ...
Context 3
... the 20th century Athens developed as the center of Greece (Figure 3), generating 47.3% of the Gross Domestic Product GDP of Greece [13]. Big capital investments were needed for the construction of modern infrastructure (e.g., Athens is the only city in Greece with a metro). ...
Similar publications
Gender relations affect economic processes, especially macroeconomic patterns and accumulation trajectories, so capitalism relies on gender construction of societies to further its expansion. For example, changes in women’s involvement in paid and unpaid work impact the extent to which the unpaid care economy subsidizes the formal economy. Failure...
Citations
... This wheat could feed 10,500 people annually with 50 dayworks per year by each farmer. Adding the production of the fertile areas (295 ha), Kerinthos' plain could cover the wheat needs of approximately 30,000 people [approximately 1% of the population of Athens (Sargentis et al., 2019), who live in approximately 300 ha (Athens' population density 10,446 capita/km 2 )] (Ballas, 2022). With modern farming methods, one farmer in Kerinthos could feed 1,000 people. ...
The water–energy–food (WEF) nexus is a basic element of prosperity, yet it is not equally distributed on the land. Human progress has optimized the function of the WEF nexus to bridge the inequality gap. In order to understand this progress, this study compares the preindustrial and modern agricultural practices in an area in Greece. Interviews were conducted with an elderly man who lived in the 1950s, and the process was quantified in units of WEF. The same procedure was also carried out with modern farmers for modern agricultural practices. In comparing the past and present agricultural processes, it is observed that today, a farmer can feed approximately 100 times more people. This feat has been achieved as modern practices push the land with energy sources in multiple ways (fuels and fertilizers). However, energy indices such as energy ratio, net energy gain, specific energy, and energy productivity do not seem to be improved. Furthermore, farmers prefer to pump underground water for irrigation, instead of utilizing the nearby river, as was done in the past when the river provided both energy to the watermill and an abundance of water for irrigation. In addition, as the price of wheat is dependent on the stock market, even in 2023, there are risks to food security, the cultivation of wheat was not economically efficient for farmers in this area in 2023.
... 1. Infrastructure Criterion: MNEs engage in FDI will consider the infrastructure of host country, including power plants and electricity network (Sovacool, Gilbert, & Nugent, 2014), water supply (Sargentis et al., 2019), telecommunication facilities (Tang et al., 2022), railways and roads, air and sea ports (Kabiru, 2016;Vlahinić-Dizdarević & Biljan-August, 2005;Wadhwa & Reddy, 2011), sanitation (Wang, 2019;Lawhon et al., 2023), internet popularization (Briglauer et al., 2018;Pazienza & Vecchione, 2009;Wadhwa & Reddy, 2011) and their combination. ...
... 11. Ponds construction [101] (lifespan 50 years). 12. Pipe network construction (lifespan 50 years). ...
Social structure is based on the availability of the Water-Energy-Food Nexus. To cover these needs of society, several solutions of different scales of infrastructures coexist. The construction of infrastructure is capital-intensive; therefore, investment risk is always a consideration. In this paper, we try to evaluate the investment risk by interest rates (IR). We show that IR is a key indicator, which includes multiple parameters of prosperity expressing the political and economic status quo of the society. The selection of a particular scale influences the required capital and is thus one of the most critical decisions. Water supply infrastructure is one of the foundations of society, and the selection of the optimal scale of such infrastructure is often a great challenge in civil engineering. As a case study, we analyse three different scales of water supply infrastructures for the area of West Mani (Greece), i.e., dam, water ponds, and seawater desalination. We evaluate each case by the capital intensity by performing stochastic simulations of interest rates and identify the optimal solution as the one with the smallest median unit cost, in this case, the water ponds. In order to assess the impact of the development level of a country on the resulting unit cost stochastic properties we apply the optimal solution to various countries with different development levels and IR. We show that IR in the least developed countries, being generally higher and more variable, increases the unit cost, including its variability, which ultimately indicates higher investment risk.
... However, the reversal of urbanization needs water resources [164]. The limitation of water resources could make life very difficult for the new inhabitants [165,166] who (especially in the West) have learned to live with an abundance of water ( Figure 12). ...
The formation of societies is based on the dynamics of spatial clustering, which optimizes economies of scale in the management of the water–energy–food (WEF) nexus. Energy and food are determinant measures of prosperity. Using the WEF nexus as an indicator, we evaluate the social impacts of the current (2022) conflict and in particular the economic sanctions on Russia. As Russia and Ukraine are major global suppliers of energy sources, food, and fertilizers, new threats arise by their limitations and the rally of prices. By analyzing related data, we show the dramatic effects on society, and we note that cities, which depend on a wider area for energy and food supplies, are extremely vulnerable. This problem was substantially worsened due to the large-scale urbanization in recent decades, which increased the distance from food sources. We conjecture that the Western elites’ decision to sanction Russia dramatically transformed the global WEF equilibrium, which could probably lead to the collapse of social cohesion.
... The urban development of Athens over the past 100 years[16]. ...
The lack of defined land uses in most parts of Greece (80%) has led to multiple environmental problems and phenomena of informal (arbitrary) construction with secondary side effects, such as a lack of basic technical and environmental infrastructure, unfair competition among private investors, the strengthening of climate change (increase in the number of urban diffusion) and the decline of natural and cultural resources. The Greek urban policy, over the last 100 years, has not succeeded in limiting these problems and for that reason the new Law 4759/2020 is expected to promote the development of a more efficient spatial planning system reform implemented through the Local Urban Plans (LUPs) and the Special Urban Plans (SUPs) that are funded by the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). These programs will contribute to the preservation of cultural heritage and to the development of productive activities at both local and national levels, especially on the sectors of renewable energy sources, the circular economy, and the construction of “green” materials, digital applications and products etc. LUPs and SUPs are related to the holistic reform of the national urban policy and the relevant planning system that horizontally affects a wide range of policy areas such as: environmental protection and adaptation to climate change (for natural ecosystems and biodiversity; agriculture; forestry; fisheries; water resources; coastal zones), built environment and development, protection of historic sites and buildings, allocation of the public infrastructure, allocation of investments etc. The General Secretariat of Spatial Planning and Urban Environment Ministry of Environment and Energy has the main responsibility for the implementation procedures of all the proposed actions that will start in 2022 and will end in 2026. This paper focuses on the analysis of the current urban policy reform in Greece and the reasons that this reform is considered an immediate necessity in the current Greek urban legislative framework and the expected outcomes of LUPs and SUPs, which are examined in the literature for the first time, contributing to research on the present EU planning systems.
... The necessary condition for them is the continuity and functioning of the educational system. Communication-cooperation (interactions) and economies of scale helped scientific research and technology to create infrastructures and low-cost production, which are the basis for flourishing societies [116][117][118][119][120]. ...
Environmental determinism is often used to explain past social collapses and to predict the future of modern human societies. We assess the availability of natural resources and the resulting carrying capacity (a basic concept of environmental determinism) through a toy model based on Hurst–Kolmogorov dynamics. We also highlight the role of social cohesion, and we evaluate it from an entropic viewpoint. Furthermore, we make the case that, when it comes to the demise of civilizations, while environmental influences may be in the mix, social dynamics is the main driver behind their decline and eventual collapse. We examine several prehistorical and historical cases of civilization collapse, the most characteristic being that of the Minoan civilization, whose disappearance c. 1100 BC has fostered several causative hypotheses. In general, we note that these hypotheses are based on catastrophic environmental causes, which nevertheless occurred a few hundred years before the collapse of Minoans. Specifically, around 1500 BC, Minoans managed to overpass many environmental adversities. As we have not found justified reasons based on the environmental determinism for when the collapse occurred (around 1100 BC), we hypothesize a possible transformation of the Minoans’ social structure as the cause of the collapse.
... Major infrastructure projects can generate issues associated with the esteem needs of the individuals and communities that live in their proximity. Major infrastructure works have the inherent characteristic that while they provide for needs for energy, water, sanitation, etc. of large spatial units, most of their landscape and environmental impacts concern a much smaller area adjacent to the required works (Sargentis et al., 2019b). It is reasonable that this "injustice" of impacts in comparison to utilities can provoke negative sentiment to local communities and a sense of disregard from authorities that develop infrastructure projects (Wolsink, 2020a(Wolsink, , 2018. ...
... Within a country, landscape impacts of infrastructure affect the quality of life of people that live in the proximity of works of infrastructure. Meanwhile, the same works provide for the needs of thousands or millions of individuals living in distant areas (Koutsoyiannis, 2011;Sargentis et al., 2019b). It is therefore reasonable that the social utility of infrastructure in providing for societies' fundamental living needs should be acknowledged before proceeding to the discussion of the landscape impacts of infrastructure. ...
... Dams are arguably some of the most crucial works of infrastructure (Koutsoyiannis, 2011;Nikolopoulos et al., 2018) and are multipurpose projects that are used for water supply, irrigation, energy generation, flood protection, recreation and other purposes (Dimas et al., 2017;Efstratiadis and Hadjibiros, 2011;Sargentis et al., 2020Sargentis et al., , 2019b. They were identified as a suitable focus for the investigation of landscape design practice in infrastructure for two reasons. ...
The case of renewable energy has demonstrated that the integration of civil infrastructure into landscapes can be a major challenge. Negligence over impacts to landscapes and marginalization of communities affected by those impacts, perpetuates a vicious cycle of public unrest and developmental disorder.
In this work, we initially investigate how civil infrastructure transforms landscapes, both quantitatively-spatially and qualitatively-perceptually. Then, utilizing the results of this investigation we propose upgrades to spatial planning and architectural design of infrastructure, aiming for its improved integration into landscapes. The study goes into more detail in the study of wind, solar, hydroelectric energy works and dams but the inferences drawn refer to all major infrastructure works.
The analysis is structured in three levels at gradually decreasing spatial scales: (A) The global scale, at which a comparative assessment of the generic landscape impacts of energy infrastructure was carried out. (B) The national-regional scale, at which the spatial planning of infrastructure was investigated, focusing on visibility analyses and how they can be improved. (C) The project's site scale, at which the architectural treatment of infrastructure was investigated in terms of its costs, utility and future potential.
... Under Hadrian, the Athenians saw their former glorious city be transformed into a cultural capital of the Roman East. Until the 1930s, the main water supply system of Athens was the Hadrianic aqueduct [61]. ...
... Under Hadrian, the Athenians saw their former glorious city be transformed into a cultural capital of the Roman East. Until the 1930s, the main water supply system of Athens was the Hadrianic aqueduct [61]. We have to note that these infrastructures were not made by slaves but by free citizens. ...
The pursuit of wealth has been a basic occupation of humans; as it turns out, wealth increases life expectancy. Analyzing global data, we show that money, probably connected with medical care, increase life expectancy. However, the base of real wealth is access to the Water–Energy–Food nexus, and the access to this also increases life expectancy. The first objective of this study was to compare the present values of wealth with antiquity, and we showed that about 1.4 billion people live in the present under the average lower wages of antiquity. As a case study, we analyze the construction of the Hadrianic aqueduct. We present a detailed description of the construction and the used methods, and we identify the total requirement of labor–time. Then, we investigate the wages of various occupations in the first century AD. The second objective of this study was the estimation of the total cost of daily wages for the construction of the project and the effect of the aqueduct on Athenians’ quality of life. Finally, we show that, today, about two billion people live with less available water than Athenians had with the Hadrianic aqueduct in the second century A.D.
... Clustering as a growth process is described in Section S1 of the supplementary material and is depicted in Figures S1-S6 [50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57]. ...
There is a widespread perception that every year wildfires are intensifying on a global scale, something that is often used as an indicator of the adverse impacts of global warming. However, from the analysis of wildfires that have occurred in the US, Canada, and Mediterranean countries, a trend that justifies this perception could not be identified. Arguably, instead of blaming climate change, research on the mitigation of wildfires should be re-directed to forest management policy and practices. Forests are admirable and complex natural ecosystems, and fires, albeit devastating, can be attributed to both human activity and to natural processes that contribute to their rebirth, with the latter constituting an intrinsic and perpetual process of the forest ecosystem. Other than their important ecological value, forests are, in the 21st century, also a capital resource, for many people’s livelihoods depend on them. In this study, we proposed a method for taking mitigation measures against wildfires based on the partitioning of forests, considering both the protection of the ecosystem and the inhabitants and aiming to utilize their co-dependent nature for the general protection and preservation of forests. As a case study, we analyzed the current devastating fire in Euboea (occurred in August 2021), initially in terms of the spatio-temporal progression of the actual wildfire that lasted several days and then by examining how an implementation of the proposed method in the study area could contribute to both the recovery of the ecosystem and the enhancement of the quality of life of the inhabitants as well as their long-term protection.
... Urbanization and high living standards increase the water withdrawal worldwide over the last 100 years [40,41]. As the population is growing just as fast, water withdrawal per capita appears to remain constant (Figure 3a). ...
Water, energy, land, and food are vital elements with multiple interactions. In this context, the concept of a water-energy-food (WEF) nexus was manifested as a natural resource management approach, aiming at promoting sustainable development at the international, national, or local level and eliminating the negative effects that result from the use of each of the four resources against the other three. At the same time, the transition to green energy through the application of renewable energy technologies is changing and perplexing the relationships between the constituent elements of the nexus, introducing new conflicts, particularly related to land use for energy production vs. food. Specifically, one of the most widespread "green" technologies is photovoltaic (PV) solar energy, now being the third foremost renewable energy source in terms of global installed capacity. However, the growing development of PV systems results in ever expanding occupation of agricultural lands, which are most advantageous for siting PV parks. Using as study area the Thessaly Plain, the largest agricultural area in Greece, we investigate the relationship between photovoltaic power plant development and food production in an attempt to reveal both their conflicts and their synergies.
