National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) founded in 1836, is the oldest, most prestigious educational institution for engineering and applied sciences in Greece. It consists of 9 Schools (over15000 students) located on two campuses. It offers 9 undergraduate and 20 post graduate interdisciplinary programmes. It has an extensive technical infrastructure and a significant presence in European research matters. Most of its projects foster international cooperation in research or education such as ESN, Socrates, Erasmus, Leonardo, Jean Monnet, besides other funded activities within the EU Research Framework programmes throughout the years.
NTUA with the School of Rural and Surveying Engineering (SRSE) (110 staff) has a strong interest and activities in the area of geospatial science and engineering, as well as its educational and social perspective. In fact, geospatial technologies and approaches constitute the new paradigm for the School of RSE, the Dean of which will act as NTUA leader in the proposed project. Activities involve earth observation and monitoring, geoinformation management, rural infrastructures and environmental planning. SRSE supports large numbers of students (140 undergraduates and 90 post-graduates annually) with curricula and courses addressing various specializations. These include the use of SIST in disaster management, interoperable SDIs, and environmental protection. SRSE has shown significant research results in the field of GIScience during the last 20 years. Its offers 2 very successful interdisciplinary MScE programmes: (a) Geoinformatics and (b) Environment & Development run since 1998 with over 1000 graduates so far.
The NTUA key staff specific to the proposal has a great involvement in all aspects of GIScience from its infancy (the 80s). This includes the transition of GI Systems to GI Science, the development of curricula, teaching numerous undergraduate and post graduate courses, quality assessment, national projects, chairing in international associations, educational cooperation, consulting, etc. This experience draws from being involved in the GI developments in the US and Canada, in similar European initiatives (ESF GISDATA, GI2000, INSPIRE, etc.), and in international organizations/ activities (FIG, ICA, ISPRS, AGILE, EUROGEOGRAPHICS, GIScience, COSIT, SDH, etc.).
Role in the project
NTUA-SRSE SRSE has the necessary laboratory infrastructure to tackle the project objectives, which among others includes: The Geoinformation Centre, the Post Graduate programme of Geoinformatics, the Remote Sensing Laboratory, the Cartography Laboratory, the Laboratory of Physical Geography & Environmental Impact, and the Centre for the Assessment of Natural Hazards and Proactive Planning. Furthermore, NTUA has been fully involved in the development of the new Body of Knowledge for Geographic Information (EU Erasmus Project GIN2K) which is a basis to design and implement new SIST curricula as those proposed in this project. Operational management: Prof. Marinos Kavouras, Dean of the School, Director of the Geoinformatics Programme and Director of the Cartography Laboratory, has served in major administrative and managerial positions in the University and national agencies, being responsible for over 30 research projects, some of which are Erasmus Projects. He will be supported by very skilled and competent technical/administrative staff; not only to execute what is expected in the objectives but also to contribute to whatever else will be necessary for the success of the project at all levels. Caution is always taken so that the staff allocated to the project can devote the necessary time.
NTUA will be involved in the following:
Leading the development of one course and participation in the development of other courses.
Participation in all meetings including steering committee meetings
Participation to the ToT sessions
Participation in dissemination/exploitation events.
Project Members
Marinos Kavouras
Marinos Kavouras
Prof. Marinos Kavouras, P Eng, obtained a Dipl. in Rural and Surveying Engineering (1979) from the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) in Greece. He received his MScE (1982) and his PhD (1987) from the Univ. of New Brunswick in Canada. He is currently Prof. of GIScience and Cartography, Dean of the School of Rural & Surveying Engineering of NTUA, Director of the Cartography Laboratory, Director of the NTUA Geoinformatics Graduate Programme, Co-Chair of AGILE, and adjunct researcher of the Institute for the Management of Information Systems (IMIS-ATHENA). He has served as Vice President of the Hellenic Cadastral Agency KTIMATOLOGIO SA and as Chair of WG II/6 – System Integration and Interoperability of the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS). Furthermore, he has undertaken various research programmes in Geoinformatics. He also leads OntoGEO – a group conducting Research in GIScience. He has served in numerous organizing and scientific committees for conferences and as a reviewer in scientific journals. He is a member of the series editors of Dissertations in Geographic Information Science (IOS Press) and of the editorial board of the ISPRS International Journal of Geoinformation. His research interests include theoretical issues in GIScience, knowledge representation, geospatial ontologies, semantic interoperability, spatio-temporal modelling, concept mapping, and theoretical cartography. He has co-authored among others the book “Theories of Geographic Concepts – Ontological Approaches to Semantic Integration” published by CRC Press T&F and over 130 publications in scientific journals and conference proceedings.
Marinos Kavouras
Kavouras, M., Kokla, M., Tomai, E., Darra, A., and Pastra, K., 2016. GEOTHNK: A Semantic Approach to Spatial Thinking. Chapter in G. Gartner, M. Jobst, and H. Huang (eds). Progress in Cartography, EuroCarto 2015, Springer.
G Grekousis, G Mountrakis, M Kavouras, 2015. Linking MODIS-derived forest and cropland land cover 2011 estimations to socioeconomic and environmental indicators for the European Union’s 28 countries. GIScience & Remote Sensing 53 (1), 122-146
Kavouras, M., and Kokla, M., 2010. “Geographic Ontologies and Society”. SAGE Handbook of GIS and Society Research, Nyerges, T., Couclelis, H., McMaster, R.B. (Eds.), Sage Publications.
Kavouras, M. and Kokla, M., 2008. Theories of Geographic Concepts: Ontological Approaches to Semantic Integration, CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, Boca Raton, FL, USA.
Kontaxaki S., Kokla M., and Kavouras M., 2010. “GeoScape, a Granularity- Depended Spatialization Tool for Visualizing Multidimensional Data Sets”, Geo-Spatial Information Science, Springer, 13(4).
Marinos Kavouras
Project Coordinator, VISTE – Empowering spatial thinking of students with visual impairment, Erasmus+: strategic partnerships for school education, 2016-2019.
Project Partner, GI-N2K – Geographic Information: Need to Know: towards a more demand-driven geospatial workforce education/training system, Erasmus Multilateral Project, Lifelong Learning Programme (LLP), The Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA), 2013-16.
Project Coordinator, GEOTHNK – Semantic pathways for building a spatially-thinking society, KA3 Multilateral projects, The Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA), 2013-15.
Project leader in the Program “Development of a System for the integration of heterogeneous geographic data of the wireless network and structural infrastructure of the Hellenic Telecommunication Organization”, funded by OTE SA, (2011 – 2012).
Project partner in the Program Geocrowd – “Creating a Geospatial Knowledge World”, funded as an IΤΝ under FP7 – People Marie Curie Actions by the European Commission, 2010, 1/12/2010 – 31/11/2014.
Coordinator of the team for the development of educational material “Geographic Information Systems for the Local Government Organizations (GNOSI109)” on an asynchronous eLearning platform Open eClass, for the “Information – Training – Local Development S.A. (PETA)”, 1/9/2009-31/12/2009.
Project coordinator of the Program “System and Data Organization for a National Spatial Data Infrastructure”, Operational Program “Information Society”, Measure 2.4, 22/1/2004 – 28/2/2005.
Project coordinator of the Program “Analysis of the Data Model for the Database of Administrative Boundaries of the European Project Esprit: ABDS for the CEEC», ABDS INCO PROJECT No 977050, for the Hellenic Mapping and Cadastral Organization, NTUA, 1/12/1998 – 31/12/2001.
Marinos Kavouras
Dean of the School of Rural and Surveying Engineering (2006–2010, 2014-to date)
Co-Chair of AGILE (Association of Geographic Information Laboratories in Europe) (2013-to date)
Vice President of the Hellenic Cadastral Agency (2004 – 2009)
Vice Director of the NTUA Geoinformatics Post Graduate Programme (1998-2007)
Director of the NTUA Geoinformatics Post Graduate Programme (2007- to date)
Director of the Cartography Laboratory (2000-01, 2004-05, 2011-2012, 2016-to date)
Chair of Working Group II/6 – System Integration and Interoperability of the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS) (2004-08)
Co-Chair of Working Group ICWG II/IV – Semantic Interoperability and Ontology for Geospatial Information of ISPRS (2008-12)
National representative of the Ministry of the Environment, Planning and Public Works in the Group of Experts in the European Directive INSPIRE (2002-05)
Vice President of the NTUA Senate Committee for Post-Graduate Studies
President of the special committee for the future strategy and reform of the School of Rural and Surveying Engineering and the discipline of Geospatial Technology
Member of the Advisory Committee for the Department of Civil Engineering and Geomatics of the Cyprus University of Technology, 2006.
Vassilios A. Tsihrintzis
Vassilios A. Tsihrintzis
Dr. Vassilios A. Tsihrintzis is Professor at the School of Rural and Surveying Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, Greece, the Director of the Department of Infrastructure and Rural Development, and the Associate Director of the Centre for the Assessment of Natural Hazards and Proactive Planning. His research interests concentrate, among others, on water resources engineering and management with emphasis on urban and agricultural drainage, flood control, non-point source pollution, water quality of aquatic systems and pollution control, ecohydrology and ecohydraulics, and the use of constructed wetlands for wastewater treatment. His published research work includes more than 130 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals and 250 papers in conference proceedings. He has also authored or co-authored books and book chapters on operations research, urban hydrology and flood management, and natural systems for wastewater treatment, among others. He has participated as a principal investigator/coordinator or a team member in various research projects in the United States, the EU and Greece. Dr. Tsihrintzis has also extensive professional experience as a practicing civil and environmental engineer both in the United States (he was a registered Professional Engineer in California and a certified Professional Hydrologist by the American Institute of Hydrology) and in Greece, having been involved in several projects related to land development, drainage, flood hazard alleviation and control, urban hydrology, sediment transport and channel design, water resources management, wetlands restoration and constructed wetlands.
Vassilios A. Tsihrintzis
V.A. Tsihrintzis, H.R. Fuentes, and R. Gadipudi. (1996). Modeling Prevention Alternatives for Nonpoint Source Pollution at a Wellfield in Florida, Water Resources Bulletin, Journal of the American Water Resources Association (AWRA), Vol. 32, No. 2, April, pp. 317-331 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1752-1688.1996.tb03454.x).
V.A. Tsihrintzis, H.R. Fuentes, and R. Gadipudi. (1997). GIS-Aided Modeling of Nonpoint Source Pollution Impacts on Surface and Ground Waters, Water Resources Management, EWRA, Vol. 11, No. 3, June, pp. 207-218.
A. Gemitzi, V.A. Tsihrintzis, E. Voudrias and C. Petalas. (2007). Combining GIS, Multicriteria Evaluation Techniques and Fuzzy Logic in Siting MSW Landfills, Environmental Geology, Vol. 51, No. 1, January, pp. 797–811 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00254-006-0359-1).
A. Gemitzi, V.A. Tsihrintzis, O. Christou and C. Petalas. (2007). Use of GIS in Siting Stabilization Pond Facilities for Domestic Wastewater Treatment, Journal of Environmental Management, Vol. 82, No. 2, January, pp. 155-166 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2005.12.022).
A. Gemitzi, C. Petalas, V. Pisinaras and V.A. Tsihrintzis. (2009). Spatial Prediction of Nitrate Pollution in Groundwaters Using Neural Networks and GIS: An Application to South Rhodope Aquifer (Thrace, Greece), Hydrological Processes, Vol. 23, No. 3, January, pp. 372-383 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hyp.7143).
Vassilios A. Tsihrintzis
Pilot Monitoring System of Nestos River Transboundary Basin, INTERREG IIIA/PHARE CBC – Greece-Bulgaria, 1/3/2006-31/12/2008
Margarita Kokla
Margarita Kokla
Dr. Margarita Kokla, P Eng, is a Lecturer at the School of Rural and Surveying Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) in the field of “Semantic Interoperability and Integration of Geospatial Information”. She holds a Diploma in Rural and Surveying Engineering (1998) from the NTUA. She has also obtained an MScE (2000) in Geoinformatics and a PhD (2005) in Semantic Interoperability in Geographic Information Science from the same School. In 2005, she received the prestigious Dimitris N. Chorafas Foundation 2005 Prize in recognition of her work in knowledge representation and engineering in geospatial domain. She is also the Secretary of Working Group II/6 – System Integration and Interoperability (2004-08 and 2008-2012) of the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Furthermore, she has participated in various research programs in Geoinformatics. She has co-authored a book as well as several publications in scientific journals and conference proceedings with over 300 citations and has also served as a reviewer in scientific journals. Her research interests include geospatial semantics, ontologies, semantic integration and interoperability, and knowledge representation.
Margarita Kokla
Kavouras, M., and Kokla, M., 2010. “Geographic Ontologies and Society”. SAGE Handbook of GIS and Society Research, Nyerges, T., Couclelis, H., McMaster, R.B. (Eds.), Sage Publications.
Kontaxaki S., Kokla M., and Kavouras M., 2010. “Semantic Labeling of Geo-Concept Clusters”, Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Geographic Information Science, Zurich, September 2010.
Kontaxaki S., Kokla M., and Kavouras M., 2010. “GeoScape, a Granularity-Depended Spatialization Tool for Visualizing Multidimensional Data Sets”, Geo-Spatial Information Science, Springer, 13(4).
Kavouras, M. and Kokla, M., 2008. Theories of Geographic Concepts: Ontological Approaches to Semantic Integration, CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, Boca Raton, FL, USA.
Kavouras M., Kokla M., and Tomai E., 2006. “Semantically-Aware Systems: Extraction of Geosemantics, Ontology Engineering, and Ontology Integration”. Geographic Hypermedia: Concepts and Systems, Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography, Emmanuel Stefanakis, Michael P. Peterson, Costas Armenakis, and Vasilis Delis (Eds.), Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Margarita Kokla
Research team member in the Program Geocrowd – “Creating a Geospatial Knowledge World”, funded as an IΤΝ under FP7 – People Marie Curie Actions by the European Commission, 2010, 1/12/2010 – 31/11/2014.
Research team member in for the development of educational material “Geographic Information Systems for the Local Government Organizations (GNOSI109)” on a asynchronous eLearning platform Open eClass, for the “Information – Training – Local Development S.A. (PETA)”, 1/9/2009-31/12/2009.
Research team member in the team for the development of educational material for GIS for the Technical Chamber of Greece, 10/4/2009 – 10/7/2009.
Research team member in the Program “System and Data Organization for a National Spatial Data Infrastructure”, Operational Program “Information Society”, Measure 2.4, 22/1/2004 – 28/2/2005.
Research team member in the Program “Analysis of the Data Model for the Database of Administrative Boundaries of the European Project Esprit: ABDS for the CEEC», ABDS INCO PROJECT No 977050, for the Hellenic Mapping and Cadastral Organization, 1/12/1998 – 31/12/2001.
Research team member in the Program “Study of a Spatial Data Transfer Standard for Cadastre”, for the Hellenic National Cadastre, NTUA, 3/12/1996 – 31/12/1999.
Margarita Kokla
Lecturer, School of Rural and Surveying Engineering, National Technical University of Athens (2012- todate)
Member of the Scientific Committee “Geographic Information Systems” of the Technical Chamber of Greece (2007 – 2010)
Secretary of ISPRS Working Group II/6: System Integration and Interoperability (2004 – 2008), http://isprs-wgii6.ntua.gr/
Member of the Scientific Committee GeoiInfo-Soc of the Operational Program “Information Society in Greece” for the measure 2.4 “Geographic Information Systems” (2002 – 2004)
Eleni Tomai
Eleni Tomai
Dr. Eleni Tomai, P Eng, is a Researcher at the Cartography Laboratory of the School of Rural and Surveying Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). She holds a Diploma in Rural and Surveying Engineering (1998) from the NTUA. She has also obtained an MScE (2000) in Geoinformatics and a PhD (2005) in Geographic Information Science from the same School. Furthermore, she has participated in various research programs in the field of Geoinformatics. She has collaborated with the INRIA Institute in France, and the Institute of Applied and Computational Mathematics of FORTH, Greece in different research projects in the field of GIS. She has co-authored several publications in scientific journals and conference proceedings with over 150 citations and has also served as a reviewer in scientific journals. Her research interests include ontology development, knowledge representation and spatial language.
Eleni Tomai
Gkadolou E., Tomai E., Stefanakis E., Kritikos G., Ontological standardization for historical map collections: studying the Greek borderlines of 1881 XXII ISPRS Congress, Commission II, vol. 1-2, pp. 203- 208, Copernicus GmbH (Copernicus Publications) 2012.
Kontaxaki, S., Tomai, E., Kokla, M., and Kavouras, M., “Visualizing multidimensional data through granularity-dependent spatialization”, In: Proceedings of the SPIE-IS&T Electronic Imaging, Conference on Visualization and Data Analysis 2010, doi: 10.1117/12.838430, SPIE Vol. 7530, 75300M, 2010.
Tomai E., Herlin I., Berroir J.-P., and Prastacos P., Ontology-based documentation of land degradation assessment from satellite images, the International Journal of Remote Sensing, 30(13), pp. 3315 – 3330, 2009.
Tomai E. and Prastacos P., and Kavouras M., A Framework for Intensional and Extensional Integration of Geographic Ontologies, Transactions in GIS, 11(6): pp. 873-887, 2007.
Kavouras M., Kokla M., and Tomai E., Semantically-Aware Systems: Extraction of Geosemantics, Ontology Engineering, and Ontology Integration, in Stefanakis, E., Peterson, M.P., Armenakis, C., and Delis, V., (Eds), Geographic Hypermedia: Concepts and Systems, Series: Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography, Springer, ISBN: 978-3-540-34237-3, 2006.
Eleni Tomai
Research team member in for the development of educational material “Geographic Information Systems for the Local Government Organizations (GNOSI109)” on a asynchronous eLearning platform Open eClass, for the “Information – Training – Local Development S.A. (PETA)”, 1/9/2009-31/12/2009.
Research team member in the team for the development of educational material for GIS for the Technical Chamber of Greece, 10/4/2009 –10/7/2009.
Research team member in the Program “A System for Decision Making for Businesses and Consumers through the Web and Open GIS Platform, Program e-Business, General Secretariat for Research and Technology, 1/9/2003 – 31/5/2005.
Research team memeber of the Program “System and Data Organization for a National Spatial Data Infrastructure”, Operational Program “Information Society”, Measure 2.4., 22/1/2004 – 28/2/2005.
Main researcher of the Program “Spatio-Temporal Models Development”, THALIS Program for Basic Research, NTUA, 2002-2003.
Research team member of the Program “Development of a Methodology for the Integration of Different Geographic Ontologies”, “Archimedes” Basic Research Program, Institute of Communication and Computer Systems (ICCS), NTUA, 1/5/2000 – 29/12/2002.
Research team member in the Program “Definition of a Land Cover – Land Use Classification Schema”, Research Program Technical Report for the Hellenic Mapping and Cadastral Organization and the National Statistical Service of Greece, NTUA, 29/3/2001 – 28/3/2002.
Research team member in the Program “Analysis of the Data Model for the Database of Administrative Boundaries of the European Project Esprit: ABDS for the CEEC», ABDS INCO PROJECT No 977050, for the Hellenic Mapping and Cadastral Organization, 1/12/1998 – 31/12/2001.
Eleni Tomai
2007-present: Researcher, Cartography Laboratory, School of Rural and Surveying Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens.
2005-2007: Collaborative Researcher, Regional Analysis Division, Institute of Applied and Computational Mathematics, FORTH.
