DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING DEMOCRITUS UNIVERSITY OF THRACE
ERASMUS+ courses for the incoming students
Our department offers 14 courses by 10 instructors from 6 laboratories: 8 during fall semester and 6 during spring semester. Each course corresponds to 5 ECTS credits. The students have 2 options: either to attend the courses taught in English language and participate to the final exams at the end of semester, or to work on a semester project and be graded based on the above project. The students must communicate with the instructors in order to define the way they wish to participate in the selected courses. Moreover, the students have the option to prepare a Master Thesis (ECTS credits 30) offered by 12 instructors. The Erasmus+ committee is composed of Vasilis Bellos, Assistant Professor (coordinator), (vbellos@env.duth.gr), Konstantinos Christoforidis, Associate Professor (member) (kochristo@env.duth.gr) and Evangelia Kostenidou Assistant Professor (member) (ekosteni@env.duth.gr).
The list of the courses is the following:
A1. Atmospheric Pollution (E. Kostenidou, Autumn, 3rd)
A2. Industrial Wastewater Treatment (S. Ntougias, Autumn, 7th)
A3. Hydraulic Works (V. Bellos, Autumn, 9th)
A4. Coastal Environmental Engineering (G. Sylaios, Autumn, 9th)
A5. Processes control and optimization of wastewater treatment plant (P. Melidis, Autumn, 9th)
A6. Anaerobic processes for the valorization of biomass and wastes (K. Stamatelatou, Autumn, 9th)
A7. Control of solid waste management systems through the framework of circular economy (D. Komilis, Autumn, 9th)
A8. Web based Geospatial applications (A. Gkemitzi, Autumn, 9th)
S1. Geographical Information Systems (A. Gkemitzi, Spring, 2th)
S2. Analytical chemistry (K. Christoforidis, Spring, 2nd)
S3. Physical Oceanography (G. Sylaios, Spring, 4th)
S4. Water Resources Management (V. Bellos, Spring, 8th)
S5. Microbial Ecology of Activated Sludge (N. Remmas, Spring, 8th)
S6. Simulation of bioprocesses in environmental engineering (K. Stamatelatou, Spring, 8th)
The thematic areas for Master thesis are the following (categorized by each instructor and in alphabetic order):
1) Instructor: Vasilis Bellos (vbellos@env.duth.gr), Laboratory of Ecological Engineering and Technology
Thematic areas: water resources management; hydraulic engineering; flood simulation; flood risk mitigation; ecohydraulics; ecohydrology; machine learning and water resources; remote sensing and water resources
2) Instructor: Konstantinos Christoforidis (kochristo@env.duth.gr), Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry
Thematic areas: environmental chemistry; photocatalytic degradation of pollutants; photocatalysts development; photocatalytic hydrogen production; application of computational chemistry in environmental systems
3) Instructor: Alexandra Gemitzi (agkemitz@env.duth.gr), Laboratory of Atmospheric Pollution and Anti-Pollution technology of Atmospheric pollutants
Thematic Areas: geospatial analysis; global environmental changes; land cover change analysis; assessment of natural disasters
4) Instructor: Dimitris Komilis (dkomilis@env.duth.gr), Laboratory of Solid and Hazardous Waste Management and Technology
Thematic areas: solid waste management; life cycle analysis in waste management
5) Instructor: Evangelia Kostenidou (ekosteni@env.duth.gr), Laboratory of Atmospheric Pollution and Anti-Pollution technology of Atmospheric pollutants
Thematic areas: air quality; atmospheric pollution; atmospheric chemistry; primary aerosol emissions; secondary organic aerosol formation; anthropogenic and biogenic gas and particle pollutants
6) Instructor: Kostas Kourtidis (kourtidi@env.duth.gr), Laboratory of Atmospheric Pollution and Anti-Pollution technology of Atmospheric pollutants
Thematic areas: atmospheric sciences; air pollution; climate
7) Instructor: Paraschos Melidis (pmelidis@env.duth.gr), Laboratory of Liquid Waste Management and Technology
Thematic areas: performance upgrading of WWTP’s by processes optimization; activated sludge microbiology problems and their control; secondary sedimentation performance upgrading; upgrading biological treatment by membrane reactor (MBR) technology; process control of activated sludge systems implementing biosensors; energy assessment of WWTP’s; upgrading of WWTP’s performance using dynamic modelling.
8) Instructor: Konstantinos Moutsopoulos (kmoutso@env.duth.gr), Laboratory of Ecological Engineering and Technology
Thematic areas: literature review of simulations approaches for fractured aquifers; simulation of rock aquifers with fractures or large conduits
9) Instructor: Spyridon Ntougias (sntougia@env.duth.gr), Laboratory of Liquid Waste Management and Technology
Thematic areas: biotreatment and microbial succession in WWTPs; identification of new biocontrol agents from agricultural residues to suppress plant pathogens; valorization of agricultural residues and wastes through fermentation
10) Instructor: Nikolaos Remmas (nremmas@env.duth.gr), Laboratory of Liquid Waste Management and Technology
Thematic areas: identification of the microbial ecology of activated sludge during the treatment of wastewater; co-treatment of wastewaters; isolation of microbial species; implementation of NGS (Next Generation Sequencing)
11) Instructor: Katerina Stamatelatou (astamat@env.duth.gr), Laboratory of Energy Production Technology from non-Conventional Sources
Thematic areas: biogas production; biogas enrichment via biological methods; simulation of anaerobic digestion process
12) Instructor: Georgios Sylaios (gsylaios@env.duth.gr), Laboratory of Ecological Engineering and Technology
Thematic areas: water resources management; remote sensing for coastal erosion; remote sensing for eutrophication; numerical modeling; offshore wind resource assessment; marine renewable energy; blue growth; marine data analysis from sensors
More details for the offered courses can be found below:
A1) Course title: Atmospheric Pollution
ECTS credits: 5
Semester: Autumn (3rd)
Instructor: Evangelia Kostenidou
Contact details: ekosteni@env.duth.gr
Description: This course familiarizes the students with the atmospheric pollution problem, the main gas and particle pollutants, the physicochemical processes that take place in the atmosphere, the chemical composition of the aerosols, the aerosol emissions and secondary aerosol formation as well as the removal mechanisms of the atmospheric pollutants.
A2) Course title: Industrial Wastewater Treatment
ECTS credits: 5
Semester: Autumn (7th)
Instructor: Spyridon Ntougias
Contact details: sntougia@env.duth.gr
Description: The course is the continuity of knowledge obtained from the attendance of previous courses, focusing on wastewater treatment. This elective course is focused on the technologies and practices used for the treatment of various, important for the local economy, industrial wastewaters.
A3) Course title: Hydraulic Works
ECTS credits: 5
Semester: Autumn (9th)
Instructor: Vasilis Bellos
Contact details: vbellos@env.duth.gr
Description: The course is an introduction for the design of hydraulic works from the perspective of an Environmental Engineer. After the semester completion, students will acquire specific skills for designing hydraulic works such as dams, flood control measures, river channelization, reclamation works, etc.
A4) Course title: Coastal Environmental Engineering
ECTS credits: 5
Semester: Autumn (9th)
Instructor: George Sylaios
Contact details: gsylaios@env.duth.gr
Description: This course introduces the student to the coastal environment and its characteristics, the coastal dynamic processes with particular emphasis on understanding the ocean waves, their transformations during their propagation towards the coast, the methodologies of processing short and long-term wave datasets aiming towards the probabilistic investigation of extreme events, the assessment methods of wave characteristics in areas where only meteorological data area available, elements of wave mechanics and engineering and waves numerical modeling.
A5) Course title: Processes control and optimization of wastewater treatment plant
ECTS credits: 5
Semester: Autumn (9th)
Instructor: Paraschos Melidis
Contact details: pmelidis@env.duth.gr
Description: The purpose of this course is to teach the basic principles of wastewater treatment plant performance optimization to meet the continuously more stringent level of environmental regulations. Control and Automation (ICA) system represents the right way of renovating a WWTP, leading to the more optimal use of the unit processes
A6) Course title: Anaerobic processes for the valorization of biomass and wastes
ECTS credits: 5
Semester: Autumn (9th)
Instructor: Katerina Stamatelatou
Contact details: astamat@env.duth.gr
Description: The course outlines the basic principles of the anaerobic bioprocesses for biogas production and/or valued added metabolic products, as a means to valorize wastes and biomass. The fundamental types of bioreactors are presented and the calculations for the design and the efficiency of the anaerobic systems are also taught.
A7) Course title: Control of solid waste management systems through the framework of circular economy
ECTS credits: 5
Semester: Autumn (9th)
Instructor: Dimitris Komilis
Contact details: dkomilis@env.duth.gr
Description: The course deals with solid waste management and its relevance to a circular economy and focuses on the seven indicators to monitor circular economy that are directly related to solid waste management. As part of that, the course gives particular emphasis on life cycle analysis as a decision support tool to calculate environmental burdens of solid waste management systems.
A8) Course title: Web based Geospatial applications
ECTS credits: 5
Semester: Autumn (9th)
Instructor: Alexandra Gkemitzi
Contact details: agkemitz@env.duth.gr
Description: Familiarization with the use of open tools for web app development. The course focuses on the development of skills through the processing of geospatial information and handling of large datasets using the Google Earth Engine Platform.
S1) Course title: Geographical Information Systems
ECTS credits: 5
Semester: Spring (2nd)
Instructor: Alexandra Gkemitzi
Contact details: agkemitz@env.duth.gr
Description: In this course an introduction to GIS and basic principles of digital mapping is presented. The topics which are discussed are the types of spatial data, spatial databases, working at various scales, scales of data capturing, generalization, data capturing through maps, remote sensing data, the Global Positioning System (GPS), methods of georeferencing, etc.
S2) Course title: Analytical chemistry
ECTS credits: 5
Semester: Spring (2nd)
Instructor: Konstantinos Christoforidis
Contact details: kochristo@env.duth.gr
Description: The aim of the course is to familiarize students with the chemistry and physics of the instrumentation/techniques used in chemical analysis, their training in sampling methods, in analysis techniques and processes and in the analysis of environmental samples. Upon the successful completion of the course, students will receive basic and specialized knowledge in analytical chemistry.
S3) Course title: Physical Oceanography
ECTS credits: 5
Semester: Spring (4th)
Instructor: George Sylaios
Contact details: gsylaios@env.duth.gr
Description: This course introduces the student to the basic principles of Physical Oceanography, emphasizing on the physical processes of ocean systems. The course contains lectures on the physical properties of sea water and their spatio-temporal variability in the oceans, explains the methods and techniques of oceanographic monitoring and analyzes the thermal, salt and water budgets.
S4) Course title: Water Resources Management
ECTS credits: 5
Semester: Spring (8th)
Instructor: Vasilis Bellos
Contact details: vbellos@env.duth.gr
Description: The course aims at providing knowledge and tools that are used by engineers in water resources planning and management. Besides, it is provided a general overview of the current state of water resources and the challenges faced today and in the future.
S5) Course title: Microbial Ecology of Activated Sludge
ECTS credits: 5
Semester: Spring (8th)
Instructor: Nikolaos Remmas
Contact details: nremmas@env.duth.gr
Description: The course is the continuity of knowledge gained from attending a number of courses focusing on wastewater treatment. This elective course deals with the removal of nutrients in activated sludge systems, emphasizing the understanding of the role of activated sludge microbiota and aiming at the efficient decontamination of the treated wastewater.
S6) Course title: Simulation of bioprocesses in environmental engineering
ECTS credits: 5
Semester: Spring (8th)
Instructor: Katerina Stamatelatou
Contact details: astamat@env.duth.gr
Description: The course outlines dynamics of biochemical reactions of various kinetics types, the development of simple and composite models in biochemical engineering, the application of biochemical models in various types of bioreactors, and the parameter estimation and sensitivity analysis. An open software for simulation (aquasim) is taught and used throughout the course.
