Successful European Project’s «Triton» Final Event

On July 2nd, 2020, the Region of Western Greece successfully organized the Final Event of the «TRITON» project. The objective of the initiative was to present the results of the project, funded by the Interreg Greece – Italy program. Puglia Region is the leader of the Program, with the technical support of ARTI, and the Region of Western Greece, the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC), the University of Patras and the European Group of Territorial Cooperation Efxini Poli are partners. The event attracted more than 150 participants and the results of the project were presented to a big audience of national and local executives, officers, scientists, and active citizens. Some representative examples are employees of: the Hellenic Parliament, the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, EETAA S.A., the HELLENIC PETROLEUM UPSTREAM, Exploration & Production of Hydrocarbons SA, the EYDE of Peloponnese, Western Greece and Ionian Islands, Regions Greek and Italic (such as Decentralized Administration Administrative Region of Western Greece, Region of Ionian Islands, Region of Apulia and Region of Western Greece), a number of Municipalities (like the Municipality of Mesolonghi, the Municipality of Xylokastro – Evrostini, the Municipality of Leukada, the Municipality of Patras, the Municipality of Western Achaia etc), Universities (for example the University of Patras and the Democritus University of Thrace), the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Education, and various companies. The Regional Governor of Western Greece, Mr. Nektarios Farmakis, welcomed the Italian and Greek participants and, in his greeting, he emphasized the importance of the cross-border cooperation between the two Regions, Apulia and Western Greece, for addressing the consequences of coastal erosion and enhancing the sustainable development of the coastal communities. After the official welcome of Mr. Farmakis, representatives from both countries presented the results of the project. Tina Ranieri, Project Officer at the Joint Secretariat presented the contribution of the Interreg V-A Greece – Italy program to the mitigation of coastal erosion. Professor Domenico Laforgia and Giuseppe Pastore from the Apulia region presented the «Triton» project overview and results. Professors Nikos Sabatakakis, Nikos Depountis, Konstantinos Nikolakopoulos, Athanasios Dimas, and Drs. Elias Fakiris and Dimitris Christodoulou, from the University of Patras presented the results from all the surveys and studies that were performed in the pilot erosion observatory of the gulf of Patras. Professor George Sylaios, Dr. Nikos Kokkos and Mr. Konstantinos Zachopoulos, from the European Group of Territorial Cooperation Efxini Poli, presented methods for identifying hotspots of coastal erosion along the coastline of Mesolonghi Municipality and visualizing them in a Web-GIS system. Finally, Dr. Elisa Furlan, from CMCC, presented a Machine Learning approach for evaluating coastal erosion risks in the Ugento shoreline and Ms. Michela Cariglia, from the Apulia region, presented the key performance indicators for effective coastal erosion prevention and integrated maritime spatial planning in EUSAIR. The video from the events, which took place in the English language, is posted on the youtube channel of the Region of Western Greece at the following link: