Democritus University of Thrace

Institute acronym:

DUTH

Institute profile:

DUTH is situated in north-east Greece and has achieved a place among the leading public research universities in Greece. The Laboratory of Engineering Geology has wide research experience in hydrogeological, geotechnical and hydrochemical studies such as: Management of groundwater and surface water, Seawater intrusion in coastal aquifers and soils, and Management of groundwater recharge. Present and previous projects include:

• Water Reuse (Funding: EU/ INCO-CT05-516731)
• Artificial recharge using wastewater (Funding: Municipality of N. Peramos, Kavala)
• Water Repellency (Funded: EU/ FAIR-CT98-4027)
• Seawater intrusion in coastal aquifers and soils of Thrace, Greece (Funded: Ministry of Agriculture, Prefectures)
• Groundwater Artificial Recharge for the plain regions of Thrace, Greece (Funded: Ministry of Agriculture)
• Potable water management (Funded: Municipal Enterprise for Water Supply and Sewage)
• Water Resources Management in Xanthi, Kavala, Drama, Komotini, Alexandroupoli, Greece (Funded: Individual Prefectures)

Website

http://www.duth.gr/

Address

Democritus University of Thrace
Department of Civil Engineering
Vas. Sofias 12, PROKAT
GR-671 00
Xanthi
Greece
Fax: +30 25410 79691

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Involved personnel

Name	Contact details	Key qualifications	Photo
Ass. Prof. Dr. Ioannis Diamantis	Tel: +30 25410 79691 E-mail: jdiam@civil.duth.gr	Coordinator of more than 50 national research projects; hydrogeologist, fundamental and applied research related to water management and sea water intrusion.
Ass. Prof. Dr. Fotios Pliakas	Tel: +30 25410 79695 E-mail: fpliakas@civil.duth.gr	Civil Engineer, with scientific interest in groundwater flow modeling, groundwater development and management, management of aquifer recharge and seawater intrusion.
Drs. Apostolos Ziogas	Tel: +30 25410 79692 E-mail: aziogas@acn.gr	Geologist, expert in soil science, soil physical properties, designing and executing field work.
Dr. Vasilios Diamantis	Tel: +30 25410 79692 E-mail: bdiamant@env.duth.gr	Environmental Engineer, specialist in wastewater management, with special interest in water reuse for irrigation. Execution of field and laboratory work.
PhD Candidate, Ioannis Gkiougkis	Tel: +30 25410 79692 E-mail: jgiougis@civil.duth.gr	Geologist, specialist in data monitoring and storage and execution of field trials. Special interest in seawater intrusion, groundwater resources management, hydrogeology of coastal aquifers.
Alexadros Pechtelidis, MSc.	Tel: +30 25410 79692E-mail: apechtel@civil.duth.gr	Environmental Engineer, MSc. Expert in fluid mechanics. Main topics: Field trails, Sample collection, Laboratory measurements.

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During the decades of '50s and '60s, a variety of flood-controlling engineering works have been built in Nestos River Delta plain, in Thrace, Greece, in the framework of the then conceived drainage-system management and wetlands natural protection. These works included river diversion, caisson, modification, draining of coastal wetlands and construction of drainage systems. These interventions have been carried out without any provision for the induced changes in the ecological balance and have changed the groundwater-recharging regime, causing the restriction of the surface water sources recharging groundwater. The aimed enlargement of cultivated lands, on the other hand, resulted in water increasing demand. This fact, in combination with the construction of the interventions mentioned above, brought out phenomena observed, now days, at the eastern part of the Delta, such as groundwater storage decrease, gradual extinction of coastal wetlands, degradation of the related phreatic aquifers and soil salinization. The most affected region is that of Maggana.

More details ... read the full study site description and an overview of all sites
	Read the full study site description
»Comparative overview of all study sites

Stakeholder groups

• Region of Eastern Macedonia-Thrace, Department of Water Management, Ministry of the Environment, Physical Planning & Public Works, is a state organization which is related to surface and ground water use, applications and management, including relevant licences.
• Prefecture of Xanthi, Administration for Land Reclamation, opines on land works and constructs as well in order to promote agricultural productivity.
• Prefecture of Xanthi, Administration for Agriculture.
• Topeiros Municipality, municipality located within the study site area.
• Democritus University of Thrace, local University among leading in Greece. The School of Engineering is located in Xanthi. It consists of the Departments of Civil, Electrical, Environmental, Mechanical and Architectural Engineering, has wide research experience in hydrogeological, geotechnical and hydrochemical studies such as: Management of groundwater and surface water, seawater intrusion in coastal aquifers, management of groundwater recharge and soil degradation.
• Traditional farmers.

Sustainability goals

The sustainability goals identified by expert estimate can be used as a starting point for the local community to develop their own visions and goals for alternation of the ominous ecological future.

Goal 1	Conservation of soils that provide high levels of productivity
Goal 2	Groundwater management in the broader area
Goal 3	Groundwater recharge in order to reverse seawater intrusion phenomenon
Goal 4	Application of suitable cultivations
Goal 5	Surface water management and transport
Goal 6	Conservation of current biological diversity
Goal 7	Remediation and conservation of saline soils
Goal 8	Improvement of local economy
Goal 9	Enforcement of groundwater management laws

Source: expert estimate, study site leader

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»Stakeholders & their sustainability goals - overview

To help understand this complex picture it can be helpful to think in terms the dominant socio-economic and environmental forces that are driving the process of land degradation. These place pressures on the land which have particular impacts. Human society may have already made responses to those impacts, or may have knowledge about how they could respond. Decisions about which responses to make may also be governed by a range of international, national or local policy regulations and agreements.

In the Nestos River Delta study site, the same stakeholder workshop and questionnaires that were used to identify existing and potential response strategies (»Identifying strategies: Stakeholder workshop 1) also discussed and identified these driving forces; pressures; impacts; and the policy and regulation environment. This information was then used to inform the choice of »Field experiments and the scenarios used in »Simulated biophysical impact of remediation strategies and their financial viability.

Select map type

Land use: type Land use: trends Land use: intensity trend Degradation: type Degradation: extent Degradation: degree Degradation: rate Land conservation: groups Land conservation: extent Land conservation: measures Land conservation: effectiveness Land conservation: effectiveness trends

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Map version: 4Oct11

Introduction
The coastal region of the East Nestos River Delta (Maggana, northern Greece) has limited freshwater supplies although irrigation is exceptionally intensive. Studies show that there is intrusion of seawater into the coastal aquifer. The shallow brackish groundwater is in use for irrigation since the last 40-50 years, which has caused severe salinization of the soil. Apart from the chemical problems for crop growth, salinization affects the permeability of soil and causes infiltration problems, because sodium in the groundwater replaces calcium and magnesium adsorbed on the soil clays and causes dispersion of soil particles: a breakdown of aggregates and natural soils structure. Also deeper in the soil this has caused compacted layers to form. Salinization is very difficult to reverse, and the only possible solution in the area lies in flushing the soil with fresh water from the river systems or fresh groundwater further inland. This experiment tests the soil degradation can be reversed on a field scale and if this results in better crop performance.

Desertification indices
The desertification indicator in this area is salinization. None of the others apply. When filling in the area characteristics the salinization aspect turns out to be moderate/high (2.99). This is mainly due to the factor “exploitation of the groundwater”. When this is high (over-exploitation) the salinization risk is medium to high, when there is no exploitation this is lowers the risk to “no risk”. This factor and the factor “population density” seem to be the only ones correlated to salinization risk in the system. This means that the technology (fresh water irrigation) gives a lowering of the salinization risk because the assumption is that this will decrease groundwater exploitation and even groundwater recharge (risk index = 0.75).

Cereals/vegetables salinization risk with groundwater exploitation (unmitigated circumstances)

Conclusions
The indicator tool correctly identifies the area as having a high salinization risk but this depends only on one factor: groundwater exploitation. Thus different technologies that influence this factor will have an immediate effect, others (such as applying chemicals) will not have an effect.

Background
One of the most important environmental problems of the study area is the phenomenon of seawater intrusion into the coastal unconfined aquifer of eastern Nestos Delta, as a result of a combination of anthropogenic activities with negative impacts on the hydrologic and hydrogeologic regime of the entire area. The main activities mentioned before are the drainage of coastal areas in order to provide areas for agricultural development, the channelization and alignment of Nestos River and finally the extensive overpumping of the phreatic aquifer for irrigation purposes (a practice which takes place continuously up to date).

Main causes and effects of land degradation identified in the workshop

Solutions already applied at the local level

Strategies to be evaluated 1. Freshwater transport 2. Deep ploughing (soil internal drainage improvement) 3. Drainage system maintenance (groundwater level control) 4. Gypsum addition

Draft outline of strateby for sustainable land management in this region

A sustainable land management strategy in the study region consists of:
1. Transportation of freshwater (construction of large distribution network)

2. Drainage improvement (new drainage canals and maintenance of existing)
3. Reclamation of degraded land

• Internal drainage improvement (deep ploughing, installation of perforated pipes or ditches)
• Removal of exchangeable sodium (gypsum addition)
• Salt leaching (freshwater flushing)

In cases where freshwater transportation is not possible:
1. Use of winter crops (winter wheat)
2. Use of gypsum to improve soil quality in combination with winter rainfall
3. Irrigation control and timing
4. Soil moisture content and soil salinity monitoring and control by irrigation (Maintenance of soil moisture and salt content at optimum level by using appropriate monitoring equipment)

More details ... download the full report and poster and see results and general conclusions from other study sites
	WP3.1 Stakeholder Workshop 1: Maggana (report) 505.51 kB
»Identifying strategies: Stakeholder Workshop 1 methodology and summary results from all study sites

Stakeholder Workshop 1 identified a number of existing or potential strategies to combat desertification and land degradation in the Nestos River Delta study site. In the months following the workshop these strategies (technologies or approaches) were documented and evaluated in a structured and standardised way and their descriptions were entered in the WOCAT Technologies and Approaches databases in order to share the information with other DESIRE sites as well as globally.

For details of all Technologies and Approaches documented in the WOCAT Database (from the DESIRE study sites and from other sites worldwide), see

• WOCAT Technologies Database
• WOCAT Approaches Database

For those relating to this study site, click on the Name of technology or Name of approach to go directly to the descriptions in the database.

WOCAT Technologies Database

WOCAT Approaches Database

Authors: V. Diamantis, I. Gkiougkis, A. Pechtelidis

The workshop methodology was designed and coordinated through Research Theme 3: Potential prevention & mitigation strategies and consisted of three main elements:

• A participatory approach to guide and lead the workshop participants through a process of multi-criteria evaluation of different options which finally results in decision-making on strategies to be field-tested.
• The WOCAT database containing locally applied options as well as options from a number of other contexts.
• 'Facilitator', a Multi Objective Decision Support System (MODSS) software to support the single steps of the evaluation and decision-making process.

Target groups were the same as in the 1st workshop: local stakeholders (land users, representatives of local authorities, local NGOs) and external stakeholders (researchers, development professionals, NGOs, GOs).

As a result of the workshop, the following measures were selected for testing in field experiments.

Measures	Specifications	Type	Land use
Transport of freshwater from local streams	Instead of saline groundwater	management	cropland

More details ... download the full report and see general results and conclusions from other study sites
	WP3.3 Stakeholder Workshop2: Maggana, Greece (report) (0.8 MB)
»Selecting strategies: Stakeholder Workshop 2 methodology and summary results from all study sites