Vasiliki K. Tsoukala

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Verified

Vasiliki verified their affiliation via an institutional email.

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• Phd
• Director of the Laboratory of Harbour Works at National Technical University of Athens

The beneficial role of rubble mound coastal structures on oxygenation under the effect of waves is discussed, based on analytical considerations and experimental data from laboratory experiments with permeable and impermeable structures. Significant oxygenation of the wave-protected area was observed as a result of horizontal transport through the...

In the present paper a modified vorticity-based model for gas transfer under breaking waves in the absence of significant wind forcing is presented. A theoretically valid and practically applicable mathematical expression is suggested for the assessment of the oxygen transfer coefficient in the area of wave-breaking. The proposed model is based on...

An important aspect that must be considered in harbor design and construction is the water quality within the basin, which depends on the water exchange between the harbor and the surrounding water body. The most internationally distinguished methods to counteract diminished flushing and insufficient renewal occurring leeward of coastal structures...

Field measurements of dissolved oxygen distribution in the vicinity of a small fishing harbor in Attica, Greece, are presented, and the positive effect on water quality of rubble mound structures are evaluated. Surveys conducted during the spring and summer periods of 1998, 2000, and 2002 included dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration and temperature...

One of the most favorable and cost-saving methods to counteract water quality deterioration in a harbor basin is the use of flushing culverts, which reduce flushing times and avoid areas of low flow and eddies formation. In the present paper, results of experiments carried out in a 2-D facility in order to investigate wave and dissolved oxygen tran...

The port of Katakolo is located in the Kyparissian Gulf, where the escape of natural gas is being observed. Result of this systematic leakage is the formation of circular depressions, known as pockmarks, which undermine the integrity of the seabed where port infrastructures might be established. This study investigates the current condition of pock...

The Coastal Resilience Agent-Based Model (CRes-ABM) is introduced, which was created to evaluate the resilience of coastal areas to the effects of climate change, with a particular emphasis on sea-level rise and extreme weather events. The aim is to provide information for developing policies and making decisions about boosting coastal resilience....

Ports act as hubs for international trade and transport, strengthening the economies of the regions they serve. To maintain their undisrupted operations, efficient port management systems rely on Structural Health Monitoring practices to detect defects and assess infrastructure performance. Regarding port concrete pavements, condition assessment in...

There is an urgent need for the development of cutting-edge port infrastructure monitoring solutions that exploit different multimodal data towards timely optimal port management strategies and decision-making. Advanced monitoring applications allow for optimising maintenance, rehabilitation, and upgrade actions by assessing the structural integrit...

Coastal flooding poses a significant threat to coastal communities, adversely affecting both safety and economic stability. This threat is exacerbated by factors such as sea level rise, rapid urbanization, and inadequate coastal infrastructure, as noted in recent climate change reports. Early warning systems (EWSs) have proven to be effective tools...

Ports are critical infrastructure assets that play a key role in the functional and spatial activities related to maritime transportation. In today's digital age, the creation of Digital Twins (DTs) of port systems has become increasingly important in order to proactively address maritime issues. While port DTs are primarily used for logistics and...

Port infrastructure plays an important role in the economic and social activities of the regions they serve. Pressures induced by the corrosive marine environment and weather conditions, unexpected events associated with climate change, the usually high freight and vehicle loading conditions, the dynamic load of the equipment, and insufficient main...

This paper presents a recently developed Operational Forecast Platform (OFP) for prevailing sea conditions at very important ports worldwide (Accu-Waves). The OFP produces reliable high-resolution predictions of wave characteristics in and around ocean ports. Its goal is to support safer navigation, predict possible port downtime, assist vessel app...

The 10th International Symposium Monitoring of Mediterranean Coastal Areas: problems and measurements techniques was organized by CNR-IBE in collaboration with Italian Society of Silviculture and Forest Ecology , and Natural History Museum of the Mediterranean and under the patronage of University of Florence, University of Catania, Accademia dei L...

Port engineering planning and management seek to confront challenges affecting the functional and structural capacity of port systems. To achieve this, design, maintenance, and rehabilitation strategies should be enhanced by dynamic approaches that help minimize the impacts of potential degradation due to climate change, natural hazards and aging o...

Small fishing harbours substantially contribute to coastal economies as they support not only fishing but also tourism activities. They are located at the land–sea interface and are considered vulnerable infrastructure affected by the increased human activities but also by the impacts of climate change, including rising sea levels and extreme weath...

Port vulnerability assessment is inherently linked to the delivery of sustainable and resilient infrastructure. Identifying the vulnerabilities and weaknesses of a port system allows for the minimization of disaster effects and optimization of maintenance, repair, or mitigation actions. The current port vulnerability assessment practices are built...

The aim of this study is to assess the resilience of coastal urban areas and their exposure to sea-level rise and coastal flooding, using the proposed Coastal Resilience Index (CResI). The CResI is an innovative combination of diverse characteristics. It includes 19 parameters and is implemented using GIS techniques. The parameters included in the...

Ports play a significant role in the economic and social activities of the areas they serve. However, the adverse effects of the harsh and highly corrosive environments that ports operate in, along with phenomena related to the climate crisis and insufficient maintenance practices, increase port infrastructure's susceptibility to rapid degradation....

Coastal areas are dynamic multidimensional systems challenged by the complex interactions between natural, environmental, and human-induced pressures, as well as the ever-changing climate. A comprehensive evaluation of their spatial and temporal features enables the development of effective practices required to apply integrated coastal zone manage...

Maritime spatial planning (MSP) is a process used to optimise marine space allocation to various activities and the environment by avoiding negative interactions and improving synergies, thereby helping the advance towards a sustainable ocean economy. MSP represents a rapidly growing research field that integrates inputs across professional, physic...

The main objective of the present work is the probabilistic representation of coastal storms’ parameters through non-parametric probability distributions that can give satisfactory estimates in the whole range of the variables’ values. Their proper probabilistic representation can provide crucial information for many applications including the prob...

In this paper, a simple approach to determine representative offshore wave characteristics for estimating the annually averaged sedimentation and erosion trends in sandy coastal areas is presented. Given the offshore wave climate, the proposed approach breaks down the climate into fixed 22.5-degree bins and based on the sediment transport potential...

Process-based models have been employed extensively in the last decades for the prediction of coastal bed evolution in the medium term (1–5 years), under the combined action of waves and currents, due to their ability to resolve the dominant coastal processes. Despite their widespread application, they are associated with high demand for computatio...

Currently, there is an urgent need for developing cutting-edge port infrastructure monitoring solutions which exploit different multi-modal data towards timely optimal port management strategies and decision making. In fact, advanced monitoring applications allow for optimizing maintenance, rehabilitation and upgrade actions by assessing structural...

Ports play a significant role in the economic and social activities of the areas they serve. However, the adverse effects of the harsh and highly corrosive environments that ports operate in, along with phenomena related to the climate crisis and insufficient maintenance practices, increase port infrastructure's susceptibility to rapid degradation....

This paper presents a new Operational Forecast Platform (OFP) for prevailing sea conditions at very important ports worldwide (project Accu-Waves; http://accuwaves.eu/). The OFP produces reliable, high-resolution, predictions of wave characteristics in and around harboured coastal areas. Its goals are to support safer navigation, assist vessel appr...

Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) policies require a comprehensive evaluation of the complex coastal spatial and temporal characteristics. Stresses induced by natural hazards, human forces and the ever-changing climate are inherently linked with the coastal vulnerability concept that is elaborated through the employment of multi-faceted ICZ...

The morphological coastal bed evolution is of high interest to engineers, scientists and the public due to the vast number of activities concentrated near the shoreline. Traditionally, process-based models have been employed to predict bed level changes in time scales of 1-5 years, however they are associated with prohibitive computational restrict...

Process-based models have been employed extensively in the last decades for the prediction of coastal bed evolution in the medium term (1-5 years), under the combined action of waves and currents, due to their ability to resolve the dominant coastal processes. Despite their widespread application, they are associated with a high demand in computati...

Coastal zones are multidimensional dynamic systems that frequently include the inevitably complex interaction between environmental and natural variability along with socio-economic activities. Within the context of applying competent Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) practices, decision-makers should comprehensively evaluate coastal dynami...

An integrated methodology is presented to ensure coastal structures' resilience to extreme wave conditions, i.e. their ability to withstand further wave actions without reaching their ultimate limit state. Specifically, a fully probabilistic reliability analysis of a rubble mound breakwater is performed here, in combination with a prediction analys...

Coastline retreat poses a threat to nearshore environment and the assessment of erosion phenomena is required to plan the coastal engineering works. The hydro-morphodynamic response of a beach to natural and artificial forcing factors differ considerably, as the nearshore processes are especially complex and depended on a multitude of parameters, i...

Κλιματική αλλαγή: Μεθοδολογία έγκαιρης πρόβλεψης και προειδοποίησης παράκτιων πλημμυρών.

An integrated methodological approach to the development of a coastal flood early-warning system is presented in this paper to improve societal preparedness for coastal flood events. The approach consists of two frameworks, namely the Hindcast Framework and the Forecast Framework. The aim of the former is to implement a suite of high-credibility nu...

The present paper provides an integrated framework for modelling of coastal inundation, aiming to help coastal communities understand their risks and consequently to prevent the adverse effects to society. The proposed framework involves the implementation and coupling of a suite of sea state hindcast data, numerical wave and hydrodynamic models an...

Life-cycle considerations are a prerequisite for rational seaport engineering design and planning since they actually retain seaports’ resilience and operational effectiveness. However, the current climate crisis poses threats to the resilience of existing seaport infrastructure, leading to functional degradation and structural failures. Life-cycle...

Seaport infrastructure monitoring promotes the development of an effective management system that ensures functionality, structural capacity and safety. Monitoring approaches are considered to be a useful tool in an attempt to deal with growing global trends, such as seaport “smartness”, or with challenging issues such as climate crisis, while enha...

Forecast of wave agitation inside port basins and consequent downtime of berth positions are of utmost importance to make a port "smarter" by efficiently managing its infrastructure. Within Accu-Waves project (http://accuwaves.eu), a decision-making tool is being developed to provide forecast data on prevailing sea states in the vicinity of port en...

Η παρούσα Τεχνική Έκθεση αποτελεί το παραδοτέο Π3.5, το οποίο περιγράφει αναλυτικά τα ακόλουθα σημεία: • Σύντομη περιγραφή των μοντέλων προσομοίωσης o Υδροδυναμικό Μοντέλο Η (HiReSS) o Κυματικό Μοντέλο Α (TOMAWAC) o Κυματικό Μοντέλο Β (WAVE-L) • Περιγραφή της Μεθοδολογίας Αξιολόγησης o Παράθεση της μεθοδολογικής προσέγγισης o Τυπική διάταξη του Δελ...

Η παρούσα Τεχνική Έκθεση αποτελεί το παραδοτέο Π4.1, το οποίο περιλαμβάνει και περιγράφει αναλυτικά τα ακόλουθα σημεία: • Τεχνικές περιγραφές: o Αρχιτεκτονική Συστήματος - Διάγραμμα Ροής ▪ Επιμέρους υποσυστήματα o Τρόποι Επικοινωνίας Μοντέλων ▪ Διάγραμμα επικοινωνίας ▪ Εκτέλεση μοντέλων o Διαδικασίες εκτέλεσης ▪ Παράλληλη εκτέλεση εργασιών ▪ Κύκλοι...

This paper presents a novel initiative for reliable high-resolution forecasts on prevailing sea states at 50 important ports worldwide (Accu-Waves; http://accuwaves.eu/). Its goal is to support safe navigation, unhampered vessel approaching to busy harbored areas, and secure ship maneuvering in ports. Accu-Waves 1 is based on integrated, high-resol...

A R T I C L E I N F O Keywords: Marine spatial planning Bibliometric survey Maritime activities Ecosystem-based management A B S T R A C T Marine/maritime spatial planning (MSP) is a process to optimise marine space allocation to various activities and the environment by avoiding negative interactions, improving synergies, thereby helping the advan...

Taking into consideration the changing climate, researchers are mainly interested in measuring this change in many different sectors. Regarding the coastal areas, the effects are related inter alias to the sea level rise, but also the increase and the severity of storms incidence. In conjunction with the astronomical tide, coastal storms can cause...

Coastal storms as extreme hydrometeorological events have severe impacts on the coasts and consequently affect the coastal communities, attracting considerable research interest nowadays. Attempting to understand the risk of these extreme events, a coastal storm analysis is accomplished by studying the parameters which define a coastal storm and th...

The ability to reliably forecast sea states (most importantly sea level, wind, and wave conditions) within or close to the entrance of ports is a critical tool for all involved stakeholders. In this paper, we present our work on a prototype decision support system capable of providing accurate sea state forecasts based on three high-resolution hydr...

The long-term prediction of morphological bed evolution has been of interest to engineers and scientists for many decades. Usually, process-based models are employed to simulate bed-level changes in the scale of years to decades. To compensate for the major computational effort required by these models, various acceleration techniques have been dev...

In the present paper a thorough probabilistic methodology is presented, aiming at estimating the reliability of coastal structures, such as rubble mound breakwaters during their lifetime, based on the probabilistic representation of load environmental and resistance parameters. One of the innovative points and main objectives of this study is the e...

In this paper we present recent evolvements of three robust numerical models for the simulation of the evolution of wave fields and hydrodynamic circulation in gulfs and coastal areas with large harbours and significant urban port facilities. The models are integrated into a single software suite for the development of a decision support tool to pr...

Η παρούσα Τεχνική Έκθεση αποτελεί το παραδοτέο Π2.5, το οποίο περιγράφει αναλυτικά τα ακό-λουθα σημεία: • Τις διενεργηθείσες από την ομάδα έργου μετρήσεις πεδίου • Τις παραμέτρους μέτρησης – παρατήρησης • Τη διενέργεια πλόων και τις σχετικές διοικητικές ενέργειες • Τον εξοπλισμό και τα όργανα μέτρησης: Κυματογράφος – σταθμηγράφος τύπου SBE26 και Aq...

Η παρούσα Τεχνική Έκθεση αποτελεί το παραδοτέο Π2.6, το οποίο περιγράφει αναλυτικά τα ακόλουθα σημεία: • Στοιχεία κωδίκων μοντέλων προσομοίωσης Α, Β, Η • Δεδομένα εισόδου – εξόδου μοντέλων προσομοίωσης Α, Β, Η • Στοιχεία ρύθμισης κώδικα μοντέλων προσομοίωσης Α, Β, Η • Υπολογιστικά πεδία εφαρμογής μοντέλων προσομοίωσης Α, Β, Η • Ειδικές παραμετροποι...

Spectral wave models have experienced constant development and vast improvements over the past decades. They are constantly being extended and refined in order to cover the complex wave transformation processes that take place in the coastal zone. Nevertheless, wave transmission due to overtopping has not been treated similarly yet. In this paper,...

The Red Sea Project (TRSP) is a development that extends over 28,000 km² along the shores of the Red Sea that will progress to become a sustainable luxury tourism destination on the west coast of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The destination incorporates the Al Wajh lagoon, a pristine 2,081 km² area that includes 92 islands with valuable habitats (c...

Η παρούσα Τεχνική Έκθεση αποτελεί το παραδοτέο Π1.3, το οποίο περιγράφει αναλυτικά τα ακόλουθα σημεία: Περιγραφή και αλυσίδα εφαρμογής μοντέλων Δεδομένα εισαγωγής στα μοντέλα Μετασχηματισμός και προσαρμογή των ατμοσφαιρικών και θαλασσίων παραμέτρων Καθορισμός οριακών και αρχικών συνθηκών Επιλογή λιμένων και καθορισμός βυθομετρικών και γεωμετρικών χ...

Overview of the rationale of Open Science and Open Science Policies with some projection on the future

Along with the unquestionable temperature rise, ocean thermal expansion and glacier melting lead the average sea level to rise at an ever-increasing rate. This increase, in conjunction with the occurrence of more severe storm surges and higher wave heights during extreme weather events, makes the upgrading of existing harbor infrastructure a necess...

The aim of this analysis is to evaluate the environmental impact assessment (EIA) process as required by the current Greek legislative framework. An estimation of the required time to issue the Environmental Terms Approval Decision (AEPO) by the application of Law 4014/2011 and the identification of the factors and of the causes of delays in the pr...

Coastal storms as extreme hydro-meteorological events have severe impacts on the coasts and consequently affect the coastal communities, attracting considerable interest in research nowadays. Trying to understand these extreme events, the storm analysis is accomplished by studying the significant wave height, the wave period, the storm duration and...

The paper presents a decision support tool being developed to provide reliable forecasts on sea states prevailing at selected ports worldwide. The application will support approaching procedures of vessels to ports. It is based on cooperating , hydrodynamic models that derive data from global scale, open sea forecasts. The implementation of the pro...

In this paper we present the evolvement of an integrated numerical model (WAVE-L) for the simulation of wave propagation and transformation in areas around and inside ports and harbors. WAVE-L is a high-resolution phase-resolving wave model based on the hyperbolic mild-slope equations, capable of simulating the transformation of complex wave fields...

An easy-for-application probabilistic methodology is presented aiming at estimating the reliability of coastal structures such as rubble mound breakwaters during their lifetime. This methodology uses the joint probability density function of all stochastic load variables involved in the reliability function of each element of the structure, in orde...

The seabed evolution due to wave-current interaction is examined in the case of a gently sloping bottom in a shallow water coastal area. In this study, an attempt has been made to estimate bed level changes over a time period of 96 hours, under accretive and erosive wave sequences. A numerical model based on the non-linear shallow water equations (...

The main objective of the present study is the combination of short- with long-term wave statistics in deep waters in order to achieve a more accurate description of the long-term wave climate in shallower waters. Such a description would provide vital information for many engineering applications in deep and intermediate waters, including design o...

The main objective of the present study is the combination of short- with long-term wave statistics in deep waters in order to achieve a more accurate description of the long-term wave climate in shallower waters. Such a description would provide vital information for many engineering applications in deep and intermediate waters, including design o...

Storm events are one of the most destructive natural hazards which affect low lying coastal areas and they are responsible for urban coastal flooding and damages in ports and coastal structures. Storm analysis and classification is fundamental for understanding these extreme and violent coastal processes especially nowadays when the frequency and t...

In this paper, the concept of water footprint (WF) was used as an indicator to determine the water consumption of an agricultural activity and then to estimate the environmental burden of this consumption by the stress-weighted water footprint (WFeqH2O) approach considering the type and the origin of water used in order to assess the potential cont...

Some well-known stability formulas for rubble mound breakwaters were revisited in order to investigate their behaviour in capturing the effect of wave period, or equivalently of wavelength, on the stability level of the structure. Experiments were conducted at the Laboratory of Harbour Works, National Technical University of Athens, with two breakw...

The main objective of this study is to propose an integrated methodology for the design of breakwaters for coastal defence, considering the wave climate change and its impact on the littoral transport in the area sheltered by the breakwater. The joint probability density function of significant wave height and mean wave period, used here, reprentat...

Storm events lead to sudden and drastic impacts on coastal areas, causing serious damages, flooding and severe coastal erosion. These extreme weather conditions seriously affect the nearshore system by reshaping the shoreline and moving large amounts of sand cross-shore. For the assessment of the consequences of such extreme storm events, an interd...

Wind and wave resources enclose an important portion of the planet’s energy potential. While wind energy has been effectively harnessed through the last decades to substitute other forms of energy production, the utilization of the synergy between wind and wave resource has not yet been adequately investigated. Such a hybrid energy system could pro...

Coastal urban areas, shorelines, ports and coastal structures are being increasingly threatened by violent hydro-meteorological phenomena such as storms, especially nowadays due to climate change and the climate variability. An extended analysis of storm events in Rethymno city of Crete Island, is attempted, under the frames of PEARL (Preparing for...

Non-connected islands to the electric gird are often depending on oil-fueled power plants with high unit cost. A hybrid energy system with renewable resources such as wind and solar plants could reduce this cost and also offer more environmental friendly solutions. However, atmospheric processes are characterized by high uncertainty that does not p...

The large energy potential of ocean dynamics is not yet being efficiently harvested mostly due to several technological and financial drawbacks. Nevertheless, modern renewable energy systems include wave and tidal energy in cases of nearshore locations. Although the variability of tidal waves can be adequately predictable, wind-generated waves enta...

In the present paper, an application of composite modeling is presented, for the estimation of wave transmission through flushing culverts. Specifically, Artificial Neural Network (ANN) are training with experimental measurements for the prediction of the transmission coefficient, when these will not be available in the future. Investigating the st...

On the present work the focus is in the harbour of Rethymnon, where through the historical database it can be observed that despite the sectional improvement the occurrence of coastal flood is steadily increasing. For those phenomena, is considered to be necessary to analyse extreme wind wave heights and estimate levels that are more extreme than t...

Coastal floods are regarded as among the most dangerous and harmful of all natural disasters affecting urban areas adjacent to the shorelines. Rapid urbanization combined with climate change and poor governance often results in significant increase of flood risk, especially for coastal communities. Wave overtopping and wave run-up are the key mecha...

EXTENDED ABSTRACT With the prediction by the United Nations that 60% of the world's population will live in cities by the year 2030, it is apparent that the immediate global future is one of urbanisation. Central to the environmental and energy security as well as risk assessment in critical Infrastructures must therefore be the increasing dominati...

In the present paper, an application of composite modeling is presented, for the estimation of wave transmission through flushing culverts. Specifically, experimental measurements are used and an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) is structured for the prediction of the transmission coefficient. Measurements were obtained from physical model tests tha...

Harbours with protruding breakwaters that are built on coasts cause alterations to the wave field, which attacks the coastline adjacent to the structures. As a result, sandy beaches often start eroding. Examples from Greece and Cyprus are presented, veryfying that the causes of the phenomenon, which are (i) the obstruction of longshore sand movemen...

Coastal communities are increasingly at risk from coastal hazards such as floods. Extreme hydro-meteorological events related to sea level rise, storm surges, heavy precipitation, shoreline erosion are driven by climate variability and increase the exposure of people, livelihoods, environmental services, resources and infrastructure to hazard. Floo...

Climate change significantly affects every day's human activities such as agriculture and tourism by altering the composition and parameters of global atmosphere over long period of time. In Greece, a substantial part of the national gross domestic product comes from agricultural production the efficiency (e.g. crop yield) of which mainly depends o...

Lack of sufficient quantity and quality water, various and often-conflicting water uses, in conjunction with issues such as overpopulation, climate change effects, over-consumption and water pollution, require water policies that will guarantee the sustainable management and protection of fresh water resources. In terms of this need, Hoekstra intro...

The objective of this study is to present an integrated stochastic approach for quantifying the risk of oil spill in marine waters and adjacent coasts. This was achieved via the effective cooperation between the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) and the Bogazici University (BU) within the framework of a bilateral joint research project...

A critical component of water footprint (WF) indicator is the green WF that refers to the total rainwater evapotranspiration (ET) plus the water incorporated into the crop. From the definition of the WF the ET rate of an irrigated cropland needs to be reliably quantified especially in water scarce regions like Chania Valley in Crete. Based on this...

Coastal floods are regarded as among the most dangerous and harmful of all natural disasters affecting urban areas adjacent to the shorelines. Rapid urbanization combined with climate change and poor governance often result in significant increases in flood risk, especially for coastal communities. Significant efforts are currently focusing on fore...