Search Results (3)

The exploitation of renewable energy is essential for mitigating climate change and reducing fossil fuel emissions. Wind energy, the most mature technology, is highly dependent on wind speed, and the accurate prediction of the latter substantially supports wind power generation. In this work, various artificial neural networks (ANNs) were developed and evaluated for their wind speed prediction ability using the ERA5 historical reanalysis data for four potential Offshore Wind Farm Organized Development Areas in Greece, selected as suitable for floating wind installations. The training period for all the ANNs was 80% of the time series length and the remaining 20% of the dataset was the testing period. Of all the ANNs examined, the hybrid model combining Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) and Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU) networks demonstrated superior forecasting performance compared to the individual models, as evaluated by standard statistical metrics, while it also exhibited a very good performance at high wind speeds, i.e., greater than 15 m/s. The hybrid model achieved the lowest root mean square errors across all the sites—0.52 m/s (Crete), 0.59 m/s (Gyaros), 0.49 m/s (Patras), 0.58 m/s (Pilot 1A), and 0.55 m/s (Pilot 1B)—and an average coefficient of determination (R²) of 97%. Its enhanced accuracy is attributed to the integration of the LSTM and GRU components strengths, enabling it to better capture the temporal patterns in the wind speed data. These findings underscore the potential of hybrid neural networks for improving wind speed forecasting accuracy and reliability, contributing to the more effective integration of wind energy into the power grid and the better planning of offshore wind farm energy generation. Full article

Gyaros Island (Aegean Sea) is a recently (2019) established MPA in the Mediterranean Sea, allowing spatiotemporal small-scale fishing (SSF) activities with specific access rules. However, due to the inability of the state authorities to establish any fishing permit process, Gyaros MPA initially functioned as a No-Take Zone (NTZ), offering a rare opportunity for scientific monitoring. Significant political pressure by fisher organizations led to the opening of the MPA in June 2022 without any fishing permit restriction. The unprecedented ‘race for fish’ that followed led to a significant deterioration of the MPA status, as confirmed by scientific monitoring before and after the opening. Outcry from national media, based on concerns raised by the scientific community and NGOs, resulted in lifting access to fishing in September 2022, upgrading Gyaros MPA to a full NTZ. This study aimed to assess if and how the MPA functioning was impacted based on a series of experimental fishing trials and questionnaire surveys conducted with local fishers. Although a substantial part of the fishing community’s mindset is embracing MPAs, our results also suggest that the self-interests of a fishers’ minority, along with non-science-based policy by the national authorities, have led to overfishing and deterioration of MPA status. Full article

Fishing activity in Greece remains important for the management of marine resources. Fishery co-management, involving various social groups and stakeholders, is considered necessary for marine ecological conservation. Environmental NGOs have acquired valuable expert and scientific knowledge on marine ecosystems which is essential for natural resource management. However, such knowledge is often in conflict with the interests of fishers, who often have tacit/lay knowledge which is rarely considered. The aim of this paper is twofold: first, to critically discuss the perceptions of different stakeholders regarding the protection of marine commons, and second, to unveil the potential conflicts in the management of the MPA on Gyaros Island. Gyaros is a cultural heritage monument, home to a colony of Mediterranean monk seals, and a traditional fishing area for adjacent island communities. Methodologically, the paper synthesises the empirical findings of a five-year (2013–2018) research project. Survey material collected over two separate periods (2014 and 2017) from the local population and professional and recreational fishers is combined with rich qualitative material from various stakeholders and participatory research to inform the research objectives. The successful management of MPAs requires that all users contribute to, agree to, and respect the terms of the MPA. Full article