Stylianos Lozios

The intersection of natural disasters and international diplomacy has gained increasing attention as humanitarian assistance becomes a strategic tool in foreign policy. While disaster response efforts are often framed as humanitarian necessities, they are frequently shaped by geopolitical interests, economic imperatives, and security considerations. This article examines the concept of disaster diplomacy by analyzing how states engage in humanitarian action to strengthen alliances, project soft power, and influence regional stability. Through a case study of the 2019 Albania earthquake, the paper explores how international responses—particularly from Greece, Turkey, the European Union, and the United States—reflect broader diplomatic dynamics in the Balkans. While disaster relief can serve as a catalyst for improved bilateral relations, its effectiveness in fostering long-term diplomatic stability remains uncertain. Despite growing academic interest in disaster diplomacy, critical knowledge gaps persist, particularly regarding the sustainability of diplomatic gains achieved through humanitarian interventions. The absence of a structured framework for integrating humanitarian aid into foreign policy planning complicates the assessment of its long-term impact. Institutional coordination challenges, the role of non-state actors, and the politicization of aid further influence the effectiveness of disaster diplomacy. This article highlights the need for comprehensive research on the geopolitical dimensions of humanitarian assistance and calls for better integration of disaster diplomacy into global governance frameworks. Strengthening institutional coordination, enhancing regional disaster response mechanisms, and conducting longitudinal studies on the diplomatic effects of humanitarian aid are essential for refining both policy and practice. Addressing these challenges will ensure that disaster diplomacy contributes not only to crisis response but also to sustainable international cooperation.

In early 2024, the largest full-scale exercise (FSE) for earthquakes and related geohazards in Greece was implemented in Crete Island (southern Greece). Crete is characterized by intense seismicity with historical and recent destructive earthquakes with considerable impact on both the natural and built environment and subsequently on the population. The uniqueness of this FSE lies in the creation and coordination of a multi-agency, multijurisdictional, and multidisciplinary environment in which a multitude of central, regional, and local stakeholders and a large percentage of the total population of Crete actively participated. This paper constitutes a descriptive study focusing on the main steps of the exercise management cycle comprising planning, implementation, and evaluation of the FSE. Furthermore, emphasis is given on its purpose and objectives, its main events and subsequent incidents, the participants and their roles, as well as the material developed and distributed to the participants. Through this study, the implemented actions for increasing preparedness of the Civil Protection mechanism in case of earthquakes and related geohazards are highlighted aiming to inform the scientific community and operational staff and to contribute to the seismic risk reduction of regions worldwide with similar seismotectonic and demographic characteristics with Crete. Furthermore, suggestions are made for the integration of multi-hazard episodes in the FSE scenario in order that the Civil Protection authorities will be prepared to handle the synergy of hazards of different types that may arise during a post-earthquake period that create compounding challenges during the emergency response and further increase recovery time.

Despite being relatively rare, Mediterranean tropical-like cyclones, also known as Medicanes, induce significant impacts on coastal Mediterranean areas. Under climate change, it is possible that these effects will increase in frequency and severity. Currently, there is only a broad understanding of the types and mechanisms of these impacts. This work studied Medicane Ianos (September 2020) and its effects on the Ionian Islands, in Greece, by developing a database of distinct impact elements based on field surveys and public records. Through this archive, the study explored the range of Ianos’ impacts to develop a systematic categorization. Results showed different types of effects induced on the natural and the built environment that can be grouped into 3 categories and 39 sub-categories in inland and coastal areas, indicating an extensive diversity of impacts, ranging from flooding and geomorphic effects to damages in various facilities, vehicles and infrastructure. The systematic description of the typology of Medicanes’ effects presented in this study is a contribution to a better understanding of their consequences as means to improve our ability to prepare for, respond to, and recover from them, a necessary stepping stone in improving the overall preparedness of both the general public and relevant authorities.

Extreme weather events can trigger various hydrogeomorphic phenomena and processes including slope failures. These shallow instabilities are difficult to monitor and measure due to the spatial and temporal scales in which they occur. New technologies such as unmanned aerial systems (UAS), photogrammetry and the structure-from-motion (SfM) technique have recently demonstrated capabilities useful in performing accurate terrain observations that have the potential to provide insights into these geomorphic processes. This study explores the use of UAS-aided photogrammetry and change detection, using specialized techniques such as the digital elevation model (DEM) of differences (DoD) and cloud-to-cloud distance (C2C) to monitor and quantify geomorphic changes before and after an extreme medicane event in Myrtos, a highly visited touristic site on Cephalonia Island, Greece. The application demonstrates that the combination of UAS with photogrammetry allows accurate delineation of instabilities, volumetric estimates of morphometric changes, insights into erosion and deposition processes and the delineation of higher-risk areas in a rapid, safe and practical way. Overall, the study illustrates that the combination of tools facilitates continuous monitoring and provides key insights into geomorphic processes that are otherwise difficult to observe. Through this deeper understanding, this approach can be a stepping stone to risk management of this type of highly-visited sites, which in turn is a key ingredient to sustainable development in high-risk areas.

4D point cloud analysis of the September 2020 Medicane impact on Myrtos beach in Cephalonia, Greece

Detailed mapping and structural observations on the Cycladic Blueschist Unit (CBU) on Iraklia Island integrated with detrital zircon (DZ) U-Pb ages elucidate the Mesozoic pre-subduction and the Cenozoic orogenic evolution. Iraklia tectonostratigraphy includes a heterogeneous Lower Schist Fm., juxtaposed against a Marble Fm. and an overlying Upper Schist Fm. The contact is an extensional ductile-to-brittle-ductile, top-to-N shear zone, kinematically associated with the Oligo-Miocene exhumation. The DZ spectra of the Lower Schist have Gondwanan/peri-Gondwanan provenance signatures and point to Late Triassic Maximum Depositional Ages (MDAs). A quartz-rich schist lens yielded Precambrian DZ ages exclusively and is interpreted as part of the pre-Variscan metasedimentary Cycladic Basement, equivalent to schists of the Ios Island core. The Upper Schist represents a distinctly different stratigraphic package with late Cretaceous MDAs and dominance of Late Paleozoic DZ ages, suggestive of a more internal Pelagonian source. The contrast in the DZ U-Pb record between Lower and Upper Schist likely reflects the difference between a Paleotethyan and Neotethyan geodynamic imprint. The Triassic DZ input from eroded volcanic material is related to the final Paleotethys closure and Pindos/CBU rift basin opening, while late Cretaceous metamorphic/magmatic zircons and ~48–56 Ma zircon rims constrain the onset of Neotethyan convergence and high-pressure subduction metamorphism.

Greece, a South-East European country located in the Mediterranean basin, faces every year disastrous and occasionally fatal forest fires. During the 2021 fire season and after the disaster of 2018 in Mati, the authorities implemented early evacuation warnings at almost every forest fire which threatened WUI areas throughout the country, irrespective of the fire’s severity. Fortunately, during these events, there was no loss of human life. However, there was strong opposition from residents and the municipalities’ civil protection officials claiming that the universal application of this tactic is not the most efficient regarding human lives and protection of property. The qualitative research presented here aims to reveal what influenced the residents’ reactions, assess problems brought about by the universal implementation of early evacuation and the extent to which alternatives strategies could be utilized in Greece. It is anticipated that this data can be used for the optimization of evacuation planning and to provide protection even for the people who will decide to act in an alternative way to the official instructions to early evacuation. The research confirmed that early evacuation is the safest option during a forest fire as it offers maximum safety to human life, but it is not the only viable option. Early evacuation is not a one-size-fits-all solution since there will always be residents who decide to stay and defend their properties or help other people.

Small occurrences of iron-oxide deposits at Sesi-Koropi in S. Hymittos, are hosted by an extensional brittle detachment zone between carbonate rocks of "Vari-Kirou Pira" and "Hymittos" units. Another low-angle fault separates a heterogeneous formation of schists, containing meta-ophiolitic blocks ("Lavrion" Unit), which is cut by high-angle normal faults that root in the detachment zone, reducing the total structural thickness of "Hymittos" marbles and bringing in contact the meta-ophiolitc lithologies with the "Vari-Kirou Pira" dolomites. Three mine caves were found along the detachment zone indicating that these iron deposits were possibly mined on a very small scale in the past. The mineralization is developed in a cataclastic zone a few meters thick (3-5m), forming thin rusty black encrustations and larger zones of alteration with a reddish to yellow brown hue. Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) mineralogical study of the iron-ore deposit indicated that hematite is the primary iron-oxide mineral extensively replaced by goethite. Goethite appears with the typical colloidal form within voids showing typical open-space filling type microstructures. According to field evidence and the tectonic macro-structure of the area, the mineralization is associated with hydrothermal fluid circulation along the brittle detachment zone between meta-ophiolitic lithologies and carbonate rocks. Similar type iron-oxides mineralization in cataclastic zones were observed along other detachment zones in northern and southeastern Hymittos Mt. and further south towards Lavrion. This suggests that this type of mineralization is not local but has a broader development and regional implications for the tectonic evolution of the central and SE Attica