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The phenomena of climate change transcend all national and regional boundaries. To address this complex challenge, we must determine the areas of the country of interest, in this case, Greece, that have been most adversely affected by climate. Greece is surrounded by water, and a significant part of its GDP is derived from the marine and maritime industries, including tourism. Since the start of the IntelComp project, a Preparatory Living Lab (PLL) has been planned and delivered, feeding into the development of the IntelComp platform and the Living Lab on Climate Change Adaptation. The study's results lead to the conclusion that one of the most important challenges in tackling climate change is the decarbonisation challenge, specifically the shift to renewable energy sources and the investments that must be made. Several EU and national policy frameworks, including the European Green Deal, the Climate Law, the National Long-term Strategy for 2050 (on the Climate and Energy), highlight the decarbonisation as one of the major challenges in the climate change pledge. This will be the primary subject of the IntelComp climate change case study. PLLs also led to the identification of policy questions and useful data sources to aid the IntelComp project's launch. While previous research on co-production has primarily focused on involving citizens through public participation processes in order to gain their support, trust, and insights in structured decision-making processes, our approach opens a new channel for incorporating external knowledge into problem-solving processes. The IntelComp project will aid in policy development by providing pertinent tools co-developed with the final users that will provide insights and analysis in the field of STI (Science, Technology, Innovation) encompassing all of the Energy areas mentioned above.

Explaining variation in life history phenology requires us to disentangle environmental-dependent variability from that caused by adaptive change across time and space. Here, we offer thermal time models (models measuring time in temperature units) as tools to understand the spawning dynamics of small pelagic fish, such as Pacific herring Clupea pallasii. We hypothesised that thermal time explains the annual timing of spawning of Pacific herring across space and time. By testing this hypothesis, we identified developmental constants (thermal constants of spawning) that can be used to make spawning time predictions. We examined spatio-temporal changes in Pacific herring spawning time over a 69 yr period (1941-2010) across 6 regions off British Columbia (BC), Canada. We estimated the degree-days (DD, °C-days) from the onset of gonadal maturation to spawning by combining spawning time estimates with distribution-specific temperature estimates. We then fitted models to explore how DD to spawning can be used to explain observed spawning time patterns across space and time and identified temperature-independent sources of variability (e.g. adaptive differences among regions, spawner size). We found that, even though Pacific herring often spawned ∼5 d later with each increasing degree in latitude, the average thermal time in DD to spawning was ∼1700°C-days. We also found that DD to spawning explains linear variation in spawning time across years for some regions of the BC Pacific herring. Thermal time models can aid in predictions of environmental responses and forecasts of life-history phenology in a changing climate.

Researchers have been driven to investigate sustainable alternatives to cement production, such as geopolymers, due to the impact of global warming and climate change resulting from greenhouse gas emissions. Currently, they are exploring different methods and waste materials to enhance the mechanical and physical properties of geopolymer and expand its application range. This review paper offers a thorough analysis of the utilization of various waste materials in geopolymer manufacturing and shows the creative contribution of this research to the development of environmentally friendly cement substitutes. The article covers the properties, durability, and practical applications of geopolymer composites made from various waste binders. It includes a microstructure and chemical analysis. The research findings indicate that geopolymers are an effective cementitious binder substitute for cement in various applications. Additionally, the ecological and carbon footprint analysis highlights the sustainability of geopolymers compared to cement.

European physical journal special topics 228(2), 261-623 (2019). doi:10.1140/epjst/e2019-900045-4 Published by Springer, Berlin ; Heidelberg