School of Agriculture
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Director

Prof. N. Silleos
Phone: +30 2310 991777 FAX: +30 2310 991778 e-mail : silleos@agro.auth.gr
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, School of Agriculture, 54124 Thessaloniki, GREECE

http://users.auth.gr/silleos

Colleagues

Nikolaos Silleos, Professor, Director of Lab
Thomas Alexandridis, Postdoctoral researcher
Christos Karydas, Postdoctoral researcher
Nikolaos Karapetsas, Postdoctoral researcher
Konstantinos Douros, PhD fellow
Charalampos Topaloglou, PhD fellow
Fotis Katsogiannos, PhD fellow
Ines Cherif, Research assistant
Eleftheria Moutziki, Office administrator and technical assistance

The Lab of Remote Sensing and GIS was founded at 1991 in the Faculty of Agriculture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, in order to cover the fields of remote sensing, GPS and GIS in the sector of agronomy and environmental impacts by human activities. The Lab of Remote Sensing and GIS works on three basic directions (1) education, (2) research and (3) the implementation of research and operational projects, financially supported either from the European Community, the Government or the Private Sector.

Education

In the Department of Agronomics of A.U.Th and in the Department of Hydraulics, Soil Science and Agr. Engineering, are taught three courses that are related with Remote Sensing and GIS, (1) Introduction in Remote Sensing, (2) Introduction in GIS and (3) Evaluation and Mapping of Agricultural Soils.

The content of the courses aims in the training of students in the principles of methodologies that are related with Remote Sensing, GIS and GPS, such as digital analysis of satellite images, theory of GIS and GPS, while in a second stage the students watch special courses with regard to use of Geographic Information Systems and Remote Sensing in the digitalisation, recording, storage and analysis of satellite and field data.

The education is supplemented with practical exercises in the analysis of raster and vector data. The postgraduate students follow a series of practical exercises in the use of special software (ERDAS IMAGINE, ENVI, ArcInfo).

The laboratory participates also, in the training courses of Geographic Information Systems, so much in the interdepartmental postgraduate department "Landscape Architecture", as well as in the Department of Environment of Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania, Krete, Greece (MAICh).

The Lab is a collaborator of many universities, organizations, institutes and private companies in Greece and abroad.

Research

Research and consenquenty the research projects, focus on agricultural applications, but also on other fields related with the broader space of natural resources and of the environment, since Remote Sensing and GIS are considered inter-scientific sectors.

The more basic applications in which the Laboratory of Remote Sensig and GIS works, are (1) soil mapping, (2) physiographic analysis, (3) erosion studies, (4) IACS and LPIS systems, (5) crop damage assessment, (6) yield prediction, (7) land use and land cover, (8) environmental research, (9) vineyard and olive cadastre.
The staff members of the Laboratory , besides others, create software in the form of interfaces and models and their link with GI systems and remote sensing software. The Lab cooperates closely with other universities, organizations and institutes in Greece and abroad.

The Lab is member of EarSel (European Remote Sensing Laboratories), while Prof. Dr. N. SIlleos was between the founders and member of the first council of European Society for Soil Conservation, while he was national representative of Greece in the SAG (Space Advisory Group) committee.

Post-Graduate Studies

The Laboratory of Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems of the School of Agriculture of A.U.Th, Greece, except the other activities, works for the promotion of new scientists with the development of postgraduate (M. Sc) and doctoral theses. Already have implemented six (6) Masters of Science and three (3) doctoral theses on issues such as the spectral soil attributes, the soil mapping and the use of remote sensing methods for management of irrigation water, structuring of the database for application of Rules of Good Farming Practices, etc. In development are three (3) doctoral theses with subjects such as the precision agriculture, the development of methods of fuzzy logic, hyperspectral analysis, detection of changes and more.

The Lab participates in the postgraduate course of Faculty of Agronomy, by teaching "Introduction of Remote Sensing", "Introduction in Geographic Information Systems and landuse planning", as well as in the inter-scientific post-graduate department of Landscape Architecture.

Seminars

Another sector of activities is the organization of educational seminars that concern applications of Remote Sensing and GIS in Geosciences. From the date of foundation the laboratory organized educational seminars in cooperation with the National Agricultural Union, the private companies EURICON, INFORMATICA, POLE and ELKEPA, MAICH, etc. Executives of Organization of subsidies payments and controls and Hellenic Agricultural Insurance were educated also in the Laboratory.

The Laboratory of Remote Sensing and GIS does not only wish collaboration with academic institutions, with which it has high degree of collaboration, but also with the Organizations of Ministry of Agriculture, in first priority and with private companies which work in similar sectors, because it believes that such collaboration is to the profit of all collaborating institutions, students and Greece.

Infrastructure

- Ten (10) PCs and LapTops in Intranet and Internet
- Plotters A0
- Scanners
- B/W and color lazer and inkjet printers
- Infrared digital camera (ADC)
- ERDAS IMAGINE 8.7
- ENVI (10 licenses)
- ArcGIS 8.3 (4 licenses)
- ArcGIS 9.0
- ARC VIEW, SPATIAL ANALYST, 3D ANALYST, IMAGE ANALYST, HYDRO (version 3.2)
- ArcIMS 4.0, WEB server, SQL

Selected Research Projects

· EUROPEAN COMMUNITY - UNIVERSITY OF LEICESTER - LOGICA - DEPARTMENT OF AGRONOMY (GREECE) :(1996-1998): Fuzzy land information for environmental remote sensing. (1998-2001)

· EUROPEAN COMMUNITY: Monitoring pollution in transborder rivers (Germany, Bulgaria, Greece, FYROM, Italy) (1999-2002)

· GREVENA PREFECTURE: Development of Geographic Information System for monitoring and mapping the agro-environment (1999-2005).

· AGRICULTURE TOBACCO COOPERATIVE OF DION MUNICIPALITY: Precision Agriculture using Remote Sensing, GIS and GPS (2000-20020

· GREEK AGRICULTURAL INSURANCE (ELGA): Crop Damage Assessment using Remote Sensing and GIS. (1996-2001).

· OPEKEPE (ORGANIZATION FOR SUBSIDIES PAYMENTS AND CONTROLS): Training of organization executives in remote sensing, GIS and GPS (1999-2004)

· GENERAL SECRATARIAT OF RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY: (PHYTHAGORAS PROJECT): Study for the use of low resolution satellite images (TERRA, NOAA-AVHRR-MODIS) for the development of a methodology for operational monitoring of the vegetation in national level (2003-2006)

· INTERREG IIIB-CADSES: (Greece, Italy, Bulgaria, Albania, Croatiaa: An integrated system for assessment the environmental impact in the frame of spatial development (2004-2007).

· European Space Agency: GMES products & services, integrating EO monitoring capacities to support the implementation of European directives and policies related to "land cover and vegetation", EC Proposal Reference No. FP-6-502871 (2004-2007)