Integrated Management of Water Resources and Monitoring of Surface Water Quality by using autonomous boats

28-29 January 2020, Crowne Plaza Athens City Centre Hotel

EYDAP organized on 28-29 January the Final INTCATCH Workshop in order to communicate and disseminate INTCATCH innovative technologies and services to the Greek Stakeholder Network. More than 80 attenders, representatives from Public Water Supply and Sewerage Companies (DEYA’s), Public Authorities (‘Special Secretariat for Water’ under Ministry of Environment and Energy, Prefectures of Greece, Public Power Corporation SA, General Chemical State Laboratory, Municipalities,Center for Renewable Energy Sources & Saving), Water Resources Management Bodies (Pamvotis, Messolonghi Lagoon), Academic Community (NTUA, NKUA, Agricultural University of Athens), Research Centers (Institute of Marine Biological Resources and Inland Waters, NCSR Demokritos),  NGOs (GWP, MIO-ECSDE,Ecologists Green) and private sector (Intergeo,  Analytical laboratories SA).

INTCATCH Coordinator Mark Scrimshaw from Brunel University London opened the Meeting and presented INTCATCH project to Greek Stakeholders, while specific presentations were given also from partners from National Institute of Health Department of Environment and Health in Italy (Mario Carere, Stefania Marcheggiani and Olga Tcheremenskaia) and from Thorsten Knutz, Managing Director of GO Systemelektronik GmbH in Germany.

Final Workshop aims were to present:

• the INTCATCH services and products to targeted End Users and Stakeholders responsible for the management, monitoring and protection of surface water in Greece
• the scientific results of the activities within the project in Lake Yliki
• the scientific results of the “deployments on demand” that carried out in nine other water catchments in Greece, namely Lake Marathon, Lake Koumoundourou, Lake Doxa, Lake Trichonida, Lake Pamvotis, Dam of Thermi, Dam of Nipsa, Acheloos River and Evros river Delta.

Outcomes

There was an increased interest among Stakeholders on the range of INTCATCH services and INTCATCH boats thanks to their ability to use on-site measurements using appropriate sensors and their relatively easy use, according the Greek Stakeholders Network could be valuable and extremely useful in:

• dams and low flow areas
• comparison with automatic telemetric stations
• comparison of spatial distribution of water quality data (e.g. chl-a, turbidity) with Landsat satellite images
• enhancing monitoring programs for water systems requiring a high frequency of measurements such as drinking water reservoirs, significantly reducing the number of sampling and consequently their costs without, however, damaging the quality of the data
• through real-time measurements at various points (even inaccessible) of the body to be monitored, to enhance the ability to detect early pollutants
• a daily basis for many companies, such as port-management, that berth ships for loading goods such as minerals. And generally, companies that have strict environmental conditions and are close to the sea.
• companies active in the monitoring of surface and groundwater as well as liquid waste

During the closing discussions the main outcome was that INTCATCH offers an innovative service with no competitors operating in the country, which can detect pollution in real time and exhibit results spatially on mobile devices and personal computers. Therefore, Greek Stakeholders such as the Institute of Marine Biological Resources and Inlands Waters will use the tools for research purposes, Management Bodies like Pamvotis Lake (natural sensitive ecosystems, NATURA 2000), as well as EYDAP SA who undertake regular monitoring, have the intention to use them during 2020. It is anticipated that there will be increasing willingness to pay for INTCATCH services as their effectiveness is further demonstrated. There is even the example of Lake Doxa (used for recreational purposes) raising the importance of INTCATCH service into public awareness. Full details of all the activities related to these stakeholders are reported in Deliverable 8.2, “Lake Yliki (and other Greek Catchments) Demonstration Report”.