The present study investigates the principal morphological and sedimentological (textural) characteristics of the beach-zones along the Tigani and Mikalis Bays, which are located at the southeastern coast of Samos Island. It is also examined their retreat due to the expected sea level rise induced by the climatic change. The beach zones under investigation has been formed in front of alluvial coastal plains, while at their western end host the mouth of small (ephemeral) rivers. Their width varies between 12 and 25 m, becoming narrower towards their eastern ends; this shows that the longshore sediment transport, which is from W to E due to their coastline orientation relatively to incoming waves, has not been strong enough to move most of the sediment eastwards. The subaerial part of both beach zones consists of gravels, while their subaqueous part is covered by sand. The presence of low dunes at the backshore odf the Thiogani Bay in association with the lack of sand between the dunes and the shoreface indicate that the beach zone is under erosion. Furthermore, with respect to the expected sea-level rise the shoreline of Tigani bay may be retreat by 15-20 m, when the nearby shoreline of Mikalis bay could retreat 12-15 m.

A geographical information system (GIS) is more than a sophisticated softwareprogram; it is a powerful tool that can be used effectively in geocultural landscape research. Geocultural landscape researchers analyze the historical content of a present landscape and its landscape evolution over time; they strive to reconstruct historical states of a landscape, using different sources, methods and techniques developed in various disciplines such as archaeology, geography, history, planning sciences as well as in related auxiliary sciences. The general interest of this study is the application of geoinformation technology in the geocultural landscape research.The introductory chapter overviews different functions of a GIS and demonstrates its role in a geocultural landscape analysis. The differences between methodology, science and GIS as a tool are presented, specifically dealing with research issues with a time and space component, as well as their representation in a computer-based system. The chapter concludes with a summary of research issues that may concern the interdisciplinary teams of both landscape researchers and geoinformation scientists.

In this paper we are examining the state of Naxos Island as far as erosion is concerned, using precipitation indexes produced from daily precipitation totals and Geographical Information System (GIS) in order to develop an erosion risk model. Naxos Island belongs to the Cycladic area and is situated at the central Aegean Sea, in Greece. The relief of the island is mountainous, with a central mountain chain crossing it from north to south. The geology of Naxos is characterised by a migmatite irruption, metamorphic rocks (schist, gneiss, marble), and sedimentary rocks (Neogenic and Quaternary deposits). Tectonism of the area is low nowadays but in the past geological time has played a major role defining the present morphology. Although the mean annual precipitation appear to be low (~360.0 mm), the erosion processes of the area are very intense, because of the intensive character of precipitation, the high slope relief, the differential lithology and the absence of important land cover. The aforementioned factors are the major contributing to the formation of the present denudated morphology mainly because of the intense run off.

The increasing worldwide apprehension of groundwater contamination problems generated the concept of groundwater vulnerability, which is based on the theory that the natural environment can offer some degree of protection to groundwater, against the natural and human impacts,especially considering, contaminants entering the subsurface environment. Although there are several methods related to the vulnerability risk assessment and mapping for porous and karstic media, there is no relative method concerning the discontinuous media. Studying groundwatervulnerability on the smaller islands of the Aegean Sea is important, because water supplies are few and avoiding contaminants entering the groundwater is vital. Tinos Island has significant water tables, as far as quantity and quality is concerned. The selected study area is theFalatados-Livada drainage system, which is developed along the lithological contact of granites and schists. In order to assess groundwater intrinsic vulnerability, a number of effective factors were used. These factors were used as input variables of the risk model, from which derived theoutput variable that lead to the production of the groundwater intrinsic vulnerability risk map.

The aim of this paper is to study the historical alluviation of Thessaloniki using mainly archaeological data. Such data have been found in many places in the study-area. These findings date from the Neolithic to the Ottoman period. We have approached this problem by studying the geomorphological processes of this area and through detailed mapping of the alluviation around ancient monuments. A spatial database was created containing geological, geomorphological and archaeological data, along with all measurements collected during fieldwork. Apart from contemporary data, older topographical maps of the area were also imported and analyzed in the GIS together with the other datasets. The results indicate that deposition rates vary on temporal and spatial scales. This is due to the topography, the lithology and the climatic changes in the area. Thus, the whole landscape of Thessaloniki area has undergone continuous change; we have estimated vertical deposition rates ranging between 1,66 and 7,5 mm p.a.

Land use changes are sources for a series of problems but they can be solutions as well. In a nature conservation area it call reduce and increase biodiversity, however in the Tihany Peninsula nature conservationists try to protect the present natural environment. Human induced landscape changes gained the peninsula the first landscape protection district status of the Country. Geological background, microclimatic conditions, given soil heritage, plant cover and land use plays all important role in the life of the Peninsula. We wish to give an example flow human induced activities might affect the valuable natural environment ill a way that threatens the aim of the protection.

Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating techniques are extensivelly used in nowadays to provide chronological information of sediment material (Zacharias et al., in press) related to landscape evolution caused by natural phenomena or influenced by human activities. Within the present study, OSL was employed to provide the age profile of sand dune formations from Mainland Greece (Peloponnese) and the islands of Crete and Corfu. The application of OSL dating was practised on quartz samples extracted from the sedimentmaterial using a modified SAR protocol (Murray and Wintle 2000). The estimation of samples dosimetry was based on gamma- (Tzortzis and Tsertos, 2004) and alpha-spectrometry (Michael and Zacharias, 2000) to provide the U, Th and K concentrations. The so far dating results indicate for ages that fall within Late Holocene to modern periods (4,000 - 500 years). The study will report on the geomorphological, micromorphological and dating results in anattempt to form the environmental and chronological framework of the dune formations in Greece.

The geochemical characteristics of topsoil depend on many variables such as thelithological nature of the geological environment, climatic conditions and humaneffects. This paper focuses οn assessing the contribution of lithology to soilgeochemistry, through the process of erosion. For this purpose, extensive field workwas carried out, including lithologic recognition of formations, rock and soil samplingand finally definition of possible human impacts that affect the chemical status ofsoils. Supplementary information was adopted from the pre-existing literature for thearea, as well as from geomorphological characteristics, climatic conditions andchemical analyses of both rock and soil. Thus, a primary database has beendeveloped, in order to asses the correlation between susceptibility of outcroppinggeological formations and soil geochemical status. The area of Kopaida basin, incentral Greece, was chosen as a case study, and the final outcome was the developingof an erosion risk map for the prevailing geological formations, which may be used asuseful tool for developing appropriate strategies on environmental protection, hazardassessment and regional planning.

Erosion represents a natural process, during which particles of geologicalformations are carried away by water, wind or by their combination. It is asignificant social and economic problem, which makes research on land and watermanagement necessary. Monitoring of erosion is needed in order to predict thedevelopment of the incident and moderate it.The selected study area is the Syros Island, a small Cycladic island. In order toassess erosion risk index, a number of effective factors were used. These factorswere used as input variables of the risk model, from which derived the outputvariable that lead to the production of the erosion risk map.

This study focuses on the phenomenon of erosion regarding the coastal dune system inNaxos island (Cyclades), Greece. In the western coastal zone of Naxos, several dunefields are observed. Despite the fact that erosion on the inland has become more intenseduring the last years, providing thus sufficient material for the development of new dunefields, the current dunes are retreating.Climate variability and prolonged human activities are the major components that lead tothe dunes’ modification, which is a sign of desertification that comes in accordance withthe recent climate change. The climatic factors that are probably involved in the dunes’erosion are the aeolian blow and the precipitation, which may act in counterbalance to thedunes formation. The climatic data that were used in the analysis include daily values ofprecipitation and wind speed, acquired from the Hellenic National Meteorological Service,for the period from 1955 to 2003.This study results in the main reasons for the retreat of the dune fields, namelyanthropogenic constructions, whose intensity increases because of the touristicdevelopment on the western coastal zone, climatic conditions and wave processes.

The geomorphological processes, which take place on the coastal zone, are influenced by a number of environmental factors, such as lithology, climate, biota, and oceanography. The present study investigated the causes of erosion taking place on the beach zones and on the coastal cliffs along the Island of Samos (eastern Aegean Sea). On the northern part of the island the coastline is characterised mainly by rocky and craggy coasts with the beach zones to be limited and in the form of a ‘pocket’ type of beach, while on the southern part by wide and long beach zones constituted by cobbles and pebbles. Intense coastal erosion takes place mainly on the rocky coasts on the northern and especially on the northwestern part of the island. In some coastal places intense coastal erosion causes problems not only to the infrastructure (road network), but also to near-coast people’s properties. Coastal erosion is more intense on the northern coasts, than on the southern coasts, due to the differenced in the incoming wave energy, which is dominated by the more intense and frequent blowing northerly winds. Furthermore, it seems that coastline retreat is more often along parts of the coast consisting of marles, malry limestones and limestones.

In this paper the counteractive dynamic marine and river environments responsible for a river mouth’s and a delta’s modulation is studied. The Acheloos River (West Greece) was chosen as the case study due to the recent changes taken place in its basin. The aim of this study is to analyze the present dominant environment and the impact of human activity on this balance. A GIS database was developed and updated in order to provide access for future use and computer analysis (both spatial and chronological). The study, includes an estimation of the delta forming processes, the impact of the anthropogenic parameters on these processes, and, finally, their representation.

The shallow bay of St. Georgios is situated in the northwestern part of the Naxos Island and it is characterized by a 2.7 km long sandy coast consisting of fine-grained (sandy) material. Sand dunes are the landward limit of the beach zone, whilst at the southwestern part of the coast an extensive lagoon plain has been formed. A partially emerged reef and the morphologically associated Manto islet protect the middle and southwestern part of the beach zone from the most frequent (>40% annually) incoming N waves and the highest NW waves (>3 m). The coastal zone is under erosion as shown by the reduction in size (>50%) of the Manto islet and the extensive erosion of the foredunes, despite the reduction of the incoming wave energy due to the reef presence. The continuous erosion (lowering) of the reef in connection with the expected eustatic sea level rise is anticipated to cause further retreat of the shoreline, demolishing the sand dune field and inundating the nearby low-lying hinterland area.