The members of the Department carry out basic and applied research with emphasis on Agricultural Sciences and Geoenvironment and specialize in the following fields:

1. Farm structures
2. Farm machine systems
3. Agricultural hydraulics
4. Mathematics and theoretical mechanics
5. Soil science and agricultural chemistry
6. Mineralogy and geology

DEPARTMENT RESEARCH IMPRINT

Any university institution other than its educational duties must develop research work. Faculty members, postdoctoral researchers and doctoral candidates mainly support the research work. In several cases, research publications involve both postgraduate and undergraduate students. The Department supports and encourages the participation of undergraduate students in research publications, which highlights their knowledge background and leads to their maturity as full scientists. At the same time, it aims at disseminating knowledge to the scientific community and society.

PUBLICATIONS IN CITATION INDEX INTERNATIONAL JOURNALS T

Τhe department presents a very high research footprint, one of the highest in Greece and the similar to of top ranking Universities abroad. This imprint is certified and quantified by the number of publications of the Department’s Faculty members in international journals with Citation Index and the number of citations in their work, suggesting the international recognition and influence of the research work. More specifically, according to the database of Scopus (which is one of the 2 international Assessment databases) at the beginning of December 2019, The total recorded were: 1387 publications and 23,488 citations, which based on the number of active Faculty members of the department correspond on average to 57.8 publications in international journals and 979 citations per Faculty member. (footnote: in the number do not count the references of  the secondary documents, while the research work of the retired Faculty members have been also accounted for.

RESEARCH PROGRAMS

The research programmes certify the very high research and applied imprint of the Department, support the excellence of the research teams, contribute to the enrichment and maintenance of the laboratory equipment and assist the practice of undergraduate and postgraduate students. In the year 2018, 113 research projects of a total budget of 2,113,594 euros were conducted. Overall, in the last three years the total budget has reached 4,876,777 euros. Funding sources come from national private and public bodies, international agencies, NSRF programmes and European Commission funds. It is worth noting that the largest amount of research programmes (~ 45% of total funding) comes from European Commission competitive research funds.

Academic members carry out theoretical and applied research in areas of great interest for National and International agriculture. The conducted research is carried out in the context of National and International founded scientific programs. In addition to the previous activities, Ph.D.Dissertations  and M.Sc (M.Eng), B.Sc (B.Eng) Theses are also supervised by the members of the laboratory. The results from the scientific activities are presented at International and Greek peer–reviewed Journals as well as at National and International Conferences.

The main scientific fields of research are:

Agricultural Constructions

• Agricultural buildings – physics and environment of buildings
• Computational and applied mechanics – Quality Inspection and behaviour of materials.
• Greenhouses-hydroponics
• Animal housing-animal behaviour and well–being
• Artificial environment in agricultural constructions

Environment

• Management of agricultural wastes.
• Urban wastes and reuse
• Erosion and sustainability of soils and geological formatios

Research Interests

The academic members carry out theoretical and applied research in areas of great interest for national and international agricultural applications. The conducted research is predominately carried out in the context of national and international founded Research Programs. In addition to the previous activities, Ph.D. Dissertations and M.Sc (M.Eng), B.Sc (B.Eng)  Theses are also supervised by the members of the laboratory. The results from the scientific activity are presented at international and Greek peer–reviewed Journals as well as at national and international Conferences.

The main scientific fields of research are:

• Control systems and process control
• Greenhouse environmental control
• Nutrition control in hydroponics
• Environmental control of animal housing
• Management of aquaculture enterprises
• Remote–management of irrigation networks engaging telematics technology
• Meteorological applications and data utilisation
• Applications in Agriculture via Internet Protocol
• Artificial intelligent Applications
• Optimisation techniques in Agriculture
• Development of multimedia applications in agriculture
• Research and development of rational practices for agriculture certifications
• Diagnostics – predictive systems
• Applications of expert systems in constructive machinery
• Inputs– outputs (energy balance) in energy cultivations

• Physicochemical and mechanical properties of biological material
• Cold storage of fruits, vegetables, Floral Crops and Nursery Stock
• Methods of agricultural products storage implementing minimal processing
• Controlled atmosphere storage
• Modified atmosphere packaging
• Ready–to–eat salads (Fruits & vegetables)
• Precooling of fruits and vegetables
• Development of postharvest criteria for cold stored agricultural products
• Cold storage and aerated stores (management and maintenance)
• Freezing of agricultural products (processing – quality)

• Power production systems
• Energy analysis of machines and energy systems
• Cooling circuits (single– and multi– stage), cooling systems, applications
• Humidification – dehumidification systems
• Artificial and sun drying of agricultural products
• Heat pumps
• Recovery, storage, upgrade of thermal energy
• Rational use of energy

The activities in this area include many applications.

• Biomass
  • Experimental energy crops, (sunflower, rapeseed, eucalyptus, miscanthus etc)
  • Study of the biomass potential for energy production in Greece and elsewhere.
  • Study of the methods of biomass processing for biofuels production (liquid, solid and gas fuels)
  • Usage and application of biofuels for energy production (heat and electricity).

• Solar Energy
  • Experimental and theoretical study of solar collectors for heat and power production
  • Testing and application of various type photovoltaics (silicon, thin film). Testing of photovoltaic systems for water pumping or water desalination

• Aeolian Energy
  • Study of small scale wind turbines for rural applications

Since its founding in 1920, the laboratory of agricultural hydraulics is reaching 100 years of continuous experience in successful research and international collaborations in Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia and Africa and is among the first in the University. The Agricultural Hydraulics Laboratory has 7 Faculty members, 5 EDIP and 1 ETEP members. In the last five years, research projects funded by the European Union and national bodies of a total budget of more than four million (€4 million) were implemented in the laboratory. The members of the laboratory have published a large number of scientific articles in prestigious international journals.

More specifically, the research and teaching of the agricultural hydraulics Laboratory focuses mainly on the following areas:

• Irrigation and drainage that focus on field research and laboratory studies on the basic processes of irrigated Agriculture, and drainage. In addition, irrigation scheduling and plant response, the irrigation with low-quality water (grey water) are also important research objects
• Soil Physics that deals with the movement of water and nutrients during the Irrigation and draining, mass and energy flows in the insatiable and congested territorial zone, the formation of profiles moisture, salts and other substances, the physical and hydraulic properties of the porous media etc.
• Bioclimatology-micrometeorology, which generally deals with the effects of the natural environment on living organisms. Although Hippocrates touched early on these issues in his Treatise on gases, water and places, the science of Bioclimatology has evolved into an important field in the recent decades with growing concern for the environment. It deals with the study of the influence of meteorological conditions and climate on plant growth, evapotranspiration, atmosphere-soil-plant relations, the effect of the microclimate on agriculture and the influence of the past and present climatic conditions for the growth and distribution of plants.
• Land reclamation works and irrigation engineering that refer to the design, analysis, modernization, use and management of reclamation projects (groundwater mining and water storage projects, transmission and distribution networks of irrigation water, open and closed conduits, drainage networks) and Design of irrigation systems in the farm system (surface systems, sprinkler systems and micro-irrigation systems).
• Water Resources Management that focuses on management and decision making for complex problems with the use information Technology (IT), decision support Systems (DSS), Smart water Systems, Web applications in management, expert systems, integrated management of river basins, management of floods and droughts, management of water resources infrastructure, transboundary water management, uncertainty and Risk analysis (Risk Management), and integrated assessment of hydrological, ecological and socio-economic impacts.
• Water Quality and Environmental Hydrology which deals particularly with the quality and movement of pollutants in surface (runoff, rivers, lakes, etc.) and groundwater (saturated and iunsaturated zone), and the protection of water quality especially in the islands and the coastal aquifers, There are fully equipped research laboratories for water quality analysis and.and water pollution monitoring.
• Hydrology. The surface hydrology: which includes the analysis and modelling of hydrological processes such as rainfall, runoff, evaporation, infiltration etc., the movement of water on the surface of morphological relief, as well as hydrological design for water storage projects and hydrological risk mitigation projects. Statistical hydrology is also an important research area. Finally, the groundwater study: which focuses on the flow in aquifers, analysis and modelling and monitoring of groundwater for their sustainable use (drillings boreholes, etc.).
• Hydraulics that develops the general principles of water flow, and includes the mechanics of fluids, the analysis of the flow of water in hydraulic structures (gates, spillways, pipes, channels etc.), methods of measuring supply, the flow open channels, flow in closed conduits – profiles of free surface in stable and non-stable flows,– analysis of pressure profiles, turbulent flowetc. Finally, with the design and study of hydraulic works such as dams, flood protection, etc.

The research interests and areas of research experience of the laboratory members include the following areas: Analysis, Numerical Analysis, Geometry, Topology, Dynamic Systems, Computational Algebra, Computer Aided Geometric Design. Starting from the belief that teaching is constantly evolving and is inextricably linked to modern research in Mathematics, the members of the laboratory place particular emphasis on it. A flashback to the history of mathematics shows conclusively that theoretical mathematics is applied many times directly to solving important problems from various scientific areas. Research in the laboratory concerns both fields of Theoretical Mathematics such as Topology, Geometry and Mathematical Analysis, as well as fields of applied Mathematics such as Computational Algebra and Geometry, Cartography, Applied Dynamic Systems etc.

In the area of Statistics, research focuses mainly on the application and development of statistical methods of analysis of quantitative and categorical data for solving problems of Hydrology, Hydraulics, Engineering Planning, biological sciences and in particular of agronomic science, as well as Statistical methods of multidimensional and multivariate analysis of large volumes of quantitative and qualitative data.

The Division of Geological Sciences includes the laboratory of Geology and Mineralogy, which is its main means in promoting the field of geosciences, the training of scientists capable of studying, researching, the understanding and implementing the latest methods in the research of the geological environment and the knowledge of using state of the art technologies to address pertinent problems. The laboratory is well equipped into the following 4 components: hydrogeochemistry, soil mechanics-rock mechanics, remote sensing and mapping, optics and electron microscopy. The equipment of the laboratory is divided into the 4 following units: Hydrogeochemistry, soil mechanics-rock mechanics, remote sensing and mapping, optics and electron microscopy.

Research objectives: mineralogy, petrography – petrochemistry, geochemistry – pollution, economic geology – industrial minerals and rocks, environmental geochemistry – adsorbents – waste decontamination, meteorites and asteroids, crystallography, structural and tectonic geology, neotectonics and paleoseismology, geological mapping, environmental geology, natural disasters, hydrogeology, Geophysical, sedimentation, Engineering geology, soil mechanics, geoarchaeology, Geomorphology, remote sensing.