Thomas Bournaris

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki | AUTH · Department of Agricultural Economics

Current international research focuses on topics like sustainable development, regional planning, environmental decision making and implementation, biodiversity conservation plus a number of other relevant issues, especially at times of economic crisis as today. Economic growth and environmental protection can go hand in hand, provided that decisio...

This paper aims to assess the impacts of household behaviour on social sustainability by simulating agricultural policy scenarios of the European Union (EU) Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). For this purpose a multicriteria model was formulated, at farm household level, in order to study the social impacts of the CAPs using different scenarios. The...

In the last decades rural communities face the problems of ageing of population, high share of elder farmers and imbalanced distribution of farmers across age classes. The Rural Development Plans (RDPs) of Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in European Union (EU) are the policy instruments that affect agriculture and the people living in rural areas....

This study explores Knowledge Brokerage (KB) aspects of an ex-post Impact Assessment (IA) for the Rural Development Programme (RDP) measure of setting up young farmers, under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), at the regional level in Northern Greece. The measure supports the entry of young farmers in agriculture by moving land from older to you...

The evaluation of users’ satisfaction from the available e-Government services is a very important factor for the e-Government evolution. In this research, the MUlticriteria Satisfaction Analysis (MUSA) method and the related software is used in order to evaluate the users’ satisfaction of agricultural e-Government services. For this reason, we use...

Agricultural production and farm management are inextricable, since managerial aspects for safe and of high-quality food products have led to the development of successful production plans but multifaceted controversies as well. These controversies arise from the focus of policymakers, especially in the EU, to the environmental aspects of agricultu...

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) system helps many companies to integrate all the business functions using a common database and shared information. The parameters that have an important impact on the success of that system (ERP) are known as Critical Success Factors (CSFs). Understanding Critical Success Factors (CSFs) and how they affect Enterp...

The efficiency of goat farming sector in Greece is analyzed in this study. A survey was carried out in 96 goat farms, randomly selected in the area of Macedonia and Thrace, Greece. Accounting data were recorded through face-to-face interviews with farmers and Data Envelopment Analysis was applied to estimate technical efficiency (TE) of goat farms....

This study aims to evaluate critical success factors (CSFs), considering the perspectives of various stakeholders who are involved in enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation in agricultural processing companies in Central Macedonia (Greece). This evaluation—combined with aspects from the literature—may show how a digital production system...

This paper set out to explore the precision agriculture (PA)-training needs of students studying in agricultural universities in the Euro-Mediterranean region (Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain). SPARKLE is a Knowledge Alliance Project, funded by the European Union (EU), and one of its main goals is to narrow the innovation divide between entrepren...

Small accommodation businesses dominate the rural hospitality industry, producing simple or complex tourist products and services in order to be sustainable and competitive. In this paper , a two-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) model was applied in a representative sample of 151 small accommodation businesses in non-coastal areas in the regio...

Agriculture is the main and, in some cases, the only, source of income and employment in rural areas. The change in the conditions under which agriculture is practiced has various effects on the agricultural economy but also on the social structure of rural areas. Climate change has multiple effects on agricultural production, necessitating the reo...

Agricultural management has become an increasingly complex endeavor. As a result, there is the need to generate knowledge from information that can guide practice, and in that aspect, decision support systems (DSSs) can contribute to achieving this goal. A DSS can be defined as a computer-based information system that is used to support complex dec...

Existing pressure for the confrontation of a radically changing external environment has led many companies to invest in various Information Systems, such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), in order to optimize their production processes and strategies. Despite the fact that ERP system is an important strategic tool, many companies fail to take...

One of the major goals for farmers is to fulfill the subsidiary requirements of the common agricultural policy in order to ensure their payments. At the same time, policies integrating agri-environmental and climate change mitigation reforms seem to keep farmers skeptical about structural changes in farm management. The formulation of agro-energy d...

The first and last names for both of the authors are reversed.

In many real world applications of data envelopment analysis (DEA), sample surveys are employed to collect input and output data that may be imprecise or ambiguous. However, accurate input and output data are fundamentally indispensable in conventional DEA. This is due to the assumption underlying DEA, that all data assume specific numerical values...

In order to improve the agricultural production an important issue is to change farmers’ behavior leading them towards sustainability. Altering farmers’ behavior is the first step is the first step towards a general societal change. In order to achieve this goal it is vital to involve as many parts of the society as possible. The existing productio...

Glasshouse farming is one of the most intensive types of production of agricultural products. Via this process, consumers have the ability to consume mainly off-season vegetables and farmers are able to reduce operational risks, due to their ability to control micro-climate conditions. This type of farming is quite competitive worldwide, this being...

The simultaneous and increasing needs for safe and quality food products, along with the environmental and socio-economic sustainability, develop a multi-level problem with controversies and arbitrary assumptions for farmers and policy makers. In order to assess the aspect of sustainability in agricultural production, different impact assessment to...

Precision agriculture (PA) constitutes a dynamic production method which is gaining attention in several parts of the world. Its environmental and economic sustainability has been examined in terms of its ability to reduce the adverse effects of agrochemical use—by regulating their application to the levels needed at the land parcel level—and of it...

This chapter aims to make a comparison between Greek and Bulgarian rural areas, in terms of social sustainability indicators. Social sustainability is related to social capital, social inclusion, social exclusion and social cohesion in rural economies, terms that can be measured by relevant social indicators. The paper focuses on the effects of far...

This study attempts to seek the main educational needs of young farmers regarding the use of precision agriculture in Serres, Greece. The main methodological analysis includes a descriptive analysis of frequencies, a categorical principal components analysis (CaPCA) and a categorical regression (CatReg). The most interesting result of this research...

The formulation of bio-based industries constitutes a major goal for the generation of sustainable forms of energy globally. Nevertheless, the different bio-energy pathways depend on manifold conversion technologies and induce an assortment of environmental impacts. To this end, the evaluation tool of life cycle assessment (LCA) is thoroughly analy...

This paper presents a multi-criteria model for agricultural production planning in agro-energy districts. The use of crop residues to produce thermal and electric energy promotes a sustainable environment. This is the reason that the formation of agro-energy districts and the increase of biomass energy production are among the main goals of the EU...

The aim of the paper is to rank the agro-energy regions according to their potentials of biomass production in the Region of Central Macedonia (RCM). For this reason, a model of Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCDA) is developed with the ELimination and Et Choix Traduisant la REalite (ELECTRE) ΙΙΙ method, with the construction of outranking relations. The...

The objectives of the European Union 2014–2020 programming period include increase of energy production from renewable sources through the creation of agro-energy districts. The utilization of residues of annual and perennial crops in agro-energy districts as a combustion product of the exploitation of biomass industry to produce heat and electrici...

The EU Water Framework Directive aims to ensure restoration of Europe’s water bodies to “good ecological status” by 2027. Many Member States will struggle to meet this target, with around half of EU river catchments currently reporting below standard water quality. Diffuse pollution from agriculture represents a major pressure, affecting over 90% o...

The rural development plan measures of Common Agricultural Policy affect people living in rural areas and have impacts on agricultural income and rural employment. This paper aims to assess the economic, environmental and social impacts of the 'setting up young farmers' measure of the rural development plan in the region of Central Macedonia in Nor...

The rural development plan measures of Common Agricultural Policy affect people living in rural areas and have impacts on agricultural income and rural employment. This paper aims to assess the economic, environmental and social impacts of the 'setting up young farmers' measure of the rural development plan in the region of Central Macedonia in Nor...

This paper presents a multi-criteria model for agricultural production planning in agro-energy districts. The use of crop residues to produce thermal and electric energy promotes a sustainable environment. This is the reason that the formation of agro-energy districts and the increase of biomass energy production are among the main goals of the EU...

The aim of the study is to examine the potentials of biomass production in the region of Central Macedonia (RCM) in Northern Greece. For this reason the crop plans of the seven regional units of the RCM were analysed. The final goal is to select the optimal crop plan between the seven regional units as a pilot case for biomass production. The main...

Proceedings of the 14th Conference of the Hellenic Association of Agricultural Economists (ETAGRO)

Nowadays, the remote sensing techniques have a significant role in all the fields of agricultural extensions as well as agricultural economics and education but they are used more specifically in hydrology. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the use of field spectroscopy for validation of the satellite data and how combination of remote sensin...

TOPSIS and VIKOR are two well-known and widely-used multiple attribute decision making methods. Many researchers have compared the results obtained from both methods in various application domains. In this paper, we present the implementation of a web-based decision support system that incorporates TOPSIS and VIKOR and allows decision makers to com...

As described in the introductory chapter, this book is concerned with the ways that actors in particular policy formulation venues gather and apply knowledge derived from using particular policy formulation tools. This chapter examines the venue of policy appraisal, which has received widespread attention from both policy formulation researchers an...

In this paper a Multiple Criteria Mathematical Programming model has been developed integrating vulnerability maps; its purpose is to optimize and facilitate the decision making process relating to the problems of water management, land use and environmental protection. The model is used to support irrigation water use and eco-friendly decision pro...

This paper aims to classify and rank rural areas in Greece using a set of technical, economic and social indicators. For this purpose, we developed appropriate indicators and criteria applied hierarchical cluster analysis and the multicriteria method PROMETHEE II. In order to collect the appropriate data, a household survey carried out in the conte...

This book includes a set of papers from distinguished scholars who critically examine economic issues relating to the relationship between water and agriculture, with a special focus on irrigation. Employing state of the art methodologies, they address the most relevant issues in water policy. The volume offers a wide spectrum of innovative approac...

During the recent years an increasing demand emerged to improve the existing law systems through procedures that support the standards of better regulation. Such processes are the regulatory impact assessment (RIA) systems through which researchers, administrators and decision/policy makers can assess the economic, social and environmental impacts...

Impact Assessment (IA) is increasingly used by the European Commission and Member States to assess the potential economic, social and environmental consequences of new policy initiatives. To support the IA process, the European Network of Excellence LIAISE is developing a Toolbox which is simultaneously accessible and useful for policy makers as we...

In this paper we try to measure the satisfaction of the agrogov.gr website users. Agrogov.gr is a web-portal designed to provide e- Government services. In order to measure users satisfaction we use the MUlticriteria Satisfaction Analysis (MUSA) method. The implementation of the method in users satisfaction evaluated quantitative global and partial...

This paper aims to assess the effects of Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) on farm household behaviour and social sustainability by estimating main labour and employment indicators. The methodology used is scenario analysis based on multicriteria decision making in order to estimate and compare the impacts of different CAP scenarios on social indica...

Social sustainability is 'one of the three legs of the sustainability stool' (the other two are environmental and economic). There is limited literature that focuses on social sustainability to the extent that a comprehensive study of this concept is still missing. As a result, there have been very few attempts to define social sustainability as an...

This paper aims to make a comparison between Greek and Bulgarian rural areas, in terms of social sustainability indicators. Social sustainability is related to social capital, social inclusion, social exclusion and social cohesion in rural economies, terms that can be measured by relevant social indicators. The paper focuses on the effects of farm...

One of the main aims of the Rural Development Plan under the EU Common Agricultural Policy is the protection of nitrate sensitive areas through agri-environmental schemes. This paper presents a mathematical programming model for farm planning in agricultural areas that are sensitive to nitrates. A bilevel linear programming (BLP) model is developed...

A model to support water-use and eco-friendly decision process in agricultural production has been developed in the context of the research project entitled EU Water (Transnational integrated management of water resources in agriculture for European water emergency control). The model is an Optimization Multicriteria Mathematical Programming model...

Social sustainability is “one of the three legs of the sustainability stool” (the other two are environmental and economic. There is limited literature that focuses on social sustainability to the extent that a comprehensive study of this concept is still missing. As a result, there have been very few attempts to define social sustainability as an...

Demand for impact assessment (IA) tools by public administrations has increased significantly in the last decades, when the European Union has also increased its efforts to measure the impact of its agricultural and environmental policies. Different IA tools have been applied to assess EU policies in agriculture and environment, like the Common Agr...

In this paper, the agroPLAN decision support system (DSS) presented; agroPLAN is a DSS for the planning of agricultural production agricultural holdings or in agricultural areas. It is one of the main farm management applications of the agroGOV.gr portal. The utilisation of the agroPLAN DSS supports the farmer-manager in the difficult process of fa...

The EU Water Decision Support System has been developed in the context of the research project entitled EU Water (http://eu-water.eu, financed by the South East Europe Transnational Cooperation Programme). The DSS is designed bearing in mind the 'ease of use' aspect and is based on the related GIS Maps created using LOS Indices developed for EU Wat...

Farm planning usually uses linear or nonlinear mathematical programming models, which generally achieve one or more goals of the decision maker. The purpose of this study is to develop a model for farm planning, which involves more than one decision maker and uses several conflicting criteria. To this end, the methodology of Bilevel Linear Programm...

In recent years, the e-government revolution has induced transformational economic and social shifts around the world. The main objective of this paper is to analyze and rank the e-government agricultural services provided by the Greek government in Citizens Services Center web portal. For this reason an analysis of all the official e-government ag...

In this paper, we present the AgroMANAGER application. AgroMANAGER is a web-based application for farm management and particularly for organisation and administration of agricultural holdings. It is one of the main farm management applications of agroGOV.gr portal. The development of AgroMANAGER applications supports the farmer-manager in the diffi...

The demand for impact assessment (IA) tools by public administrations has increased significantly. The last decades European Union has increased its efforts to measure the impact of its agricultural and environmental policies. Different IA tools have been applied to assess EU policies in agriculture and environment like revised CAP, decoupling, wat...

The large volume of non-classified agricultural information over the internet increases the need of developing agricultural portals, where everyone involved with agriculture will be able to have access to the information easily and quickly. Portals play a key role in e-government, as they are the main access points for citizens to local, regional o...

This study aims to assess the multiple impacts of the Common Agricultural Policies (CAP) on social sustainability in rural areas. Social sustainability is related to social capital, social inclusion, social exclusion and social cohesion in rural economies, terms that are described in this paper and measured by relevant social indicators. A multicri...

This study was conducted in the framework of the European research project 'CAPIRE: Assessing the multiple Impacts of the Common Agricultural Policies on Rural Economies'. CAP-IRE project aims at developing concepts and tools to support future CAP design and implementation, based on an improved understanding of long-term socio-economic mechanisms o...

This paper presents a multicriteria mathematical programming model that was developed to study the impacts of different tobacco diversification alternatives on income, employment and environment. The model estimates the farmers' utility function taking in account various conflicting criteria that can explain the farmers' behaviour (e.g., maximisati...

Modern agriculture is characterized by a series of conflicting optimization cri-teria that hinder the decision-making process in the planning of agricultural production. Such criteria are usually gross margin, the variance of gross mar-gin that stands as a measurement of the total risk, labour, etc. At the same time, the decision-making process in...

This paper uses a multicriteria mathematical programming model to estimate the farmer’s utility function and simulate different scenarios and policies as well as to make alternative production plans. Application of this model was carried out in the irrigated region of the Xanthi Prefecture in Greece, as well as to three different farm clusters. The...

This paper presents a decision support system (DSS) for sustainable development and environmental protection of agricultural regions developed in the framework of the Interreg-Archimed project entitled WaterMap (development and utilization of vulnerability maps for the monitoring and management of groundwater resources in the ARCHIMED areas). Its a...

A multicriteria model was formulated in order to study the impacts of different tobacco diversification alternatives on income, employment and environment. It was developed in the context of the research project DIVTOB (Diversification for Tobacco Growing Regions in the Southern European Union), a European FP6 funded project. The model estimates th...

The CAP reform for the tobacco sector has the aim to phase out the subsidy payment for tobacco cultivation. From 2006 to 2009, a decoupled payment is provided in the framework of the Single Farm Payment Scheme. This will have great impacts on the tobacco farmers in terms of income and employment. This study is aimed at identifying tobacco alternati...

A Decision Support System (DSS) to support sustainable development planning processes in the agricultural sector has been developed in the context of the research project entitled WATER MAP (Development and utilization of vulnerability maps for the monitoring and management of groundwater resources in the Archimed area), which is an Interreg -Archi...