On June 11th 2019, the WetMainAreas project was presented during a night event at the gardens of the National Observatory of Athens (NOA). WetMainAreas , funded by the Transnational Cooperation Programme Balkan-Mediterranean 2014-2020, contributes to the protection, conservation and development of wetlands, as a shared asset of the Balkan- Mediterranean territory. The project focuses on the development of a harmonized database and maps for all wetland ecosystems in Greece, Bulgaria, Albania, North Macedonia and Cyprus.
The Deputy Minister of Environment and Energy Mr. Georgios Dimaras, and the President and Board Director of NOA Prof. Manolis Plionis greeted the event.
The event was attended by the Secretary General for Environment of the Ministry of Environment and Energy Mrs. C. Baritaki, the President of the Managing Board of the Greek Biotope/Wetland Center and Honorary President of the Hellenic Council of State Mr. Konstantinos Menoudakos and the Director of the Institute of Astronomy, Astrophysics, Space Applications and Remote Sensing of NOA Dr. Spyros Basilakos. Representatives of the Special Secretariat for Water, the ESPA Strategic Structure, the Managing authority for Operational Programme “Transport Infrastructure, Environment and Sustainable Development”, the Hellenic Environmental Inspectorate, the Directorate for Water of the Decentralized Administration of Attiki, the Forest Directorate of East Attiki and other representatives of environmental organizations and institutions were also present.
The project was presented by Dr. Eleni Fytoka, Head of the Department of Inventory of Natural Areas of the Greek Biotope/Wetland Center. Following, Dr. Iphigenia Keramitsoglou, Research Director of NOA, presented the innovative operational service for monitoring water surfaces of wetlands from Space.
The video that described the service premiered at this event. The video is available in Greek at the following link: https://youtu.be/yFOJVut5HVA and in English at: https://youtu.be/Zk01ZMAK1SA.