Agricultural and Environmental Informatics, Governance and Management

Information and communication technologies (ICT) play an increasingly important role in the socio-economic environment of rural areas, and e-governance can empower citizens by facilitating their access to information and participatory decision-making. Agricultural and Environmental Informatics, Governance and Management: Emerging Research Applications is a state-of-the-art reference book which explores how rural policymakers and stakeholders can use information and communication technologies to sustainably manage agricultural and natural resources. The book explores how ICT can support public governance and rural decision-making, how supply chain and agricultural informatics tools and methods can improve agricultural management, and how ICT is especially useful for environmental, resource, and ecosystems management and for geospatial landscape planning. The book integrates cross-disciplinary knowledge about agricultural and environmental applications of informatics, connecting science and policy on a subject critical to the present and future quality of life in rural areas.

Zacharoula Andreopoulou holds a BS degree in Mathematics, a BS degree in Forestry and Natural Environment, and a PhD degree in Forest Informatics, all from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, where she is currently an assistant professor in the Laboratory of Forest Informatics. She teaches courses on networks and Web services, databases, project management, and software programming with focus on the environment and sustainable development. Her scientific and research interests include networks and Web services, databases, modeling and project management in natural resources and environment, sustainable development, and regional development applications. She is an active member of scientific societies and she has organized and participated in many international and domestic conferences. She is the author, co-author, and editor in books regarding environmental informatics, and her recent scientific publications include papers in various international Journals.

Basil Manos has been holding teaching and research positions in the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH) since 1976. He is a Professor at the Department of Agricultural Economics of School of Agriculture and Director of the Laboratory of Agricultural Informatics of this School. His research interests are in Operational Research models in Agriculture, Decision Support Systems, Regional Planning, Sustainability and Efficiency, Environmental Management. Professor Manos holds B.S. degrees in Mathematics and Economics from AUTH, a M.Sc. degree in Operational Research from the London School of Economics, and a Ph. D. in Agricultural Economics from AUTH. He has published papers in European Journal of Operational Research, Interfaces, Journal of Environmental Management, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, Regional Studies, Journal of Policy Modeling, Water policy, Supply Chain Management-An International Journal, British Food Journal etc. He has conducted research in many National and EU funded projects, coordinating some of them, since 1976.

Nico B.P. Polman is as senior researcher responsible for investigations regarding institutional economics, scaling and governance, as well as the impact of agriculture on rural land use, including aspects related to regional development and rural policy. He is employed at LEI, part of Wageningen UR, Research area Regional Economy and Land Use. He has experience in coordinating research projects for the Dutch government and participated in a number of European projects.

Davide Viaggi is professor in Agricultural economics and rural appraisal at the University of Bologna. He holds a first degree in Agricultural Sciences, a European Master in Agricultural economics with specialisation in Environmental and resource economics, and a PhD in Agricultural Economics and Policy. His main research interests include agricultural policy evaluation, economics of water use in agriculture, economics of innovation in the agri-food sector, design of agri-environmental schemes, environmental evaluation, and farm management. He coordinates the fp7 project CAP-IRE and was involved in several fp5, fp6, and fp7 research projects. The results of his research activities are collected in more than 170 publications, including articles in some of the main international journals in agricultural economics, water policy, and environmental and resource economics.