SEE-GRID intended to provide specific support actions to pave the way towards the participation of the SE European countries to the Pan-European and worldwide Grid initiatives. This was accomplished through dissemination conferences and training material including cookbooks, pilot and demonstration test-beds for hands-on experience, applications’ adaptations to be able to use the Grid, operational and support centre schemes and organisation, and finally feasibility studies and roadmaps for the integration of the SEE to the European Research Area (ERA) via an extended Pan-European Grid infrastructure. SEE-GRID had the following objectives: (a) Create a human network in the area of Grids, eScience and eInfrastructures in SEE, (b) Extend support to Pan-European Grid efforts (e.g. GRIDSTART, DAMIEN, DATAGRID, EUROGRID, CROSSGRID, DATATAG, EGEE, etc) in the SEE region, (c) Co-operate with GEANT, SEEREN initiatives and exploit their infrastructures and results in the region, (d) Integrate selected Grid sites into a regional pilot testbed and demonstrate selected applications within the Pan-European Framework. (e) Promote awareness in the region regarding Grid developments. (f) Ease the digital divide and bring South-Eastern European Grid communities closer to the rest of the continent, (g) Establish a dialogue at the level of policy developments for research and education and provide inputs to the agenda of national governments and funding bodies, (h) Promote regional and international collaboration in the SEE area and with neighbouring countries. Partners: Academic and Research Network of Yugoslavia, Greek Research and Technology Network ? GRNET (Greece), Centre Europeene pour la Research Nucleaire ? CERN, Central Laboratory for Parallel Processing (Bulgaria), National Institute for Research & Development in Informatics-ICI (Romania), The Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey-TUBITAK, Parallel and Distributed Systems Laboratory – MTA SZTAKI (Hungary), B&H Academic and Research Network ? BIHARNET (Bosnia Herzegovina), Macedonian Academic and Research Network ? MARNET (FYROM), Ruder Boskovic Institute ? RBI (Croatia). NOA acted as third party linked to GRNET. Duration: 2008-2010 Budget: 49.000 EUR. Coordinator for IERSD: V. Kotroni FLIRE – FLoods and fIre Risk assessment and management, LIFE Purpose: The aim of the FLIRE project is to change the paradigm for the combined, effective and robust risk assessment and management of both flash floods and forest fires, using state of art tools, technologies and methods and taking into account prevention, adaptation and interaction issues. The area of application of this approach is the peri-urban environment of the Eastern Attica region (Greece). The main objectives of the project include: (a) The development of a Weather Information Management Tool (WIMT) that will receive short-term weather forecasting information and will dynamically take into account local conditions to classify weather conditions as of potential risk for floods or fires, (b) The development of a near real-time flood risk assessment and management tool which will include a catchment modelling component, an urban modelling component and an Early Flood Warning System. (c) The development of a near real-time forest fire risk assessment and management tool which will include a fire modelling component and an Early Fire Warning System. (d) The development of a planning tool for flood risk assessment and management which will use the catchment modelling and urban modelling components of the near real-time flood management tool and further integrate an urban development modelling component and an optimization algorithm for flood risk management. (e) The integration of these components into a common system (a Decision Support System Tool (DSS Tool)), supporting decisions for integrated flood and forest fire management and (f) The implementation and testing of the system in Eastern Attica. Partners: NATIONAL TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF ATHENS, Imperial College London, IRPI-CNR, NATIONAL OBSERVATORY OF ATHENS, ALGOSYSTEMS S.A., FORTH Duration: 2008-2010 Budget: 131,117 EUR. Coordinator for IERSD: V. Kotroni Improvement of prediction of meteorological and climate parameters in the Eastern Mediterranean, Excellency in Greek Research Centres, Financement: Greek Secretariat for Research and Technology Purpose: The main goal of the project was the improvement of prediction capabilities of atmospheric and climatic parameters at local/regional scale in the Eastern Mediterranean. To this end, we investigated techniques and algorithms for the assimilation and integration of high resolution weather information into regional forecasting models. The existing relevant infrastructure at NOA (an X-band polarimetric Doppler radar, a European-wide network of lightning detectors, satellite receivers) have been integrated for forecasting purposes and hydrometeorological research. Moreover the effect of the expected climate change at the local/regional scale has been examined. The knowhow gained in this project improved the role of NOA in weather prediction (especially high impact weather) in Greece and in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Scientist in Charge: KOTRONI, Project Type: EUROPEAN