Title: Design and implementation of an environmental network for the requirements of a European funded research project

Authors: Ioannou Konstantinos; Emmanouloudis Dimitrios; Lefakis Panagiotis; Myronidis Dimitrios

Addresses: Department of Forestry and Natural Environment Management, TEI of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, 1st Kilometer Dramas-Microchoriou, Greece ' Department of Forestry and Natural Environment Management, TEI of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, 1st Kilometer Dramas-Microchoriou, Greece ' Laboratory of Forest Informatics, School of Forestry and Natural Environment, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Box 247, 54 124, Greece ' Laboratory of Forest Informatics, School of Forestry and Natural Environment, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Box 247, 54 124, Greece

Abstract: Project ManagMed is an intergovernmental activity, which is focused in NATURA 2000 areas and consists of 11 partners in five different countries. In the framework of the project ManagMed, an environmental network was designed and deployed. The main goals from the creation of the network were two: firstly, the improvement of the communication of the project's partners in issues regarding the project's aims; secondly, the promotion of the project's activities to the public. In order to achieve these goals, the network was designed to include three main components: a web portal, an internet forum and a video conference application. The portal was created mainly for the promotion and communication between the project's partners and the public. The internet forum was created for information exchange and file transfers between the partners. Finally, the video conference was deployed as a support tool for real-time communication. This paper describes the technical specifications which were set, and the solutions which were implemented in order to create the environmental network. The environmental network is installed on a Linux server running Apache, PHP and MySQL. The network is accessible to the public at the following URL http://www.managmed.gr.

Keywords: environmental portals; internet forum; environmental networks; network design; web portals; video conferencing; information exchange; file transfer; research projects; project management; intergovernmental activity; project partners; communications; public awareness.

DOI: 10.1504/IJASS.2014.065690

International Journal of Applied Systemic Studies, 2014 Vol.5 No.4, pp.249 - 261

Accepted: 28 Nov 2013
Published online: 14 Nov 2014 *

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