The Global Resource Information Database (GRID) is a worldwide network of 15 environmental data centres managed by the Division of Early Warning and Assessment (DEWA) of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). Based in Geneva’s International Environment House, GRID-Europe has a scientific and administrative partnership with University of Geneva (UNIGE).

GRID-Europe specialised in handling and analysing spatial and statistical data on environmental and natural resource issues through computerised Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and remotely-sensed imagery. Over the years, GRID-Europe has compiled an archive of global and European geospatial and tabular databases, and makes them accessible to the global community through Internet-based applications.

Grid-Europe has expertise in Geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing, and modelling to provide: better insights to decision-makers, sustainable use of natural resources, analysis of emerging environmental problems and threats. Recent applications in this domain include:
- Lake Balaton Integrated Vulnerability Assessment, Early Warning and Adaptation Strategies project1.
- IMOS: Evolution of the Mesopotamian marshlands ecosystem.

The group specialised also in the integration, dissemination and communication of geographic information visually on the World Wide. GRID-Europe is responsible for the complete design, data gathering and formatting, and on-line interface of several data portals and map servers such as:
- FP6 METAFUNCTIONS project, is pooling expertise in bioinformatics, computer science, geographical information systems and marine sciences to develop a data-mining system that correlates genetic patterns in genomes with contextual environmental data.
- The GEO Data Portal, the authoritative source for data sets used by UNEP and its partners in the Global Environment Outlook (GEO) report.
- FP7 ACQWA project data warehouse and spatial direct interface.

The project will essentially be implemented by:

• Dr. Anthony Lehmann was trained as an aquatic biologist who specialized in GIS and statistical analyses. He is the Project Coordinator (see link in the UNIGE article above for more details).
• Ron Witt is the Director of UNEP/GRID-Europe and will coordinate the project with UNEP activities in this field and region.
• Dr. Nicolas Ray is a biologist specialized in GIS and spatially-explicit modelling. He is the Project Manager (see link in the UNIGE article above for more details). He will contribute to all tasks related to grid infrastructure support and gridification of applications.
• {tooltip}Gregory Giuliani{end-texte} After obtaining a degree in Earth Sciences, he went on to complete a master in Environmental Sciences, specializing in remote sensing and GIS. He previously worked as a GIS Consultant for the World Health Organization, as a University tutor in remote sensing and GIS and as a GIS Developper in a local Swiss GIS company. He works at UNEP/GRID-Europe since 2001 and is the focal point for Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI). In 2008, he also started to collaborate closely with the enviroSPACE laboratory where he begins a Ph.D thesis and works also for the FP7 ACQWA project. In enviroGrids, he is involved as WP2 leader where his objective is to coordinate SDI and Grid technology researches.
  Personal page: https://www.unige.ch/climate/Team/Giuliani.html{end-tooltip} is a geologist and environment scientist who specialized in GIS analyses and Internet map server. He will be Work package leader of WP2 on SDI.
• Dr. Hy Dao is a geographer who will coordinate the task on demographic scenarios.
• Dr. Andrea de Bono is a geologist specialized in GIS analyses who will contribute to the demographic and climatic scenarios.
• Karin Allenbach is a geologist specialized in remote sensing who will contribute to task on this topic.

The project will essentially be implemented by:

• {tooltip}Dr. Anthony Lehmann{end-texte} Dr. Anthony Lehmann is the EnviroGRIDS project initiator and coordinator. He holds a Masters Degree and a PhD in Aquatic Biology from the University of Geneva, and a Postgraduate Master in Statistics from the University of Neuchâtel. He specialized during his career in combining GIS analyses with statistical models. At the University of Geneva he is in charge of the enviroSPACE laboratory exploring Spatial Predictions and Analyses in Complex Environments.
  
  He is sharing is working time at a 50% rate with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Global Resource Information Database (GRID) under a special agreement between the University of Geneva and UNEP. At GRID, Dr. Lehmann is responsible for organizing research activities by leading the “environmental monitoring and modelling” unit. With the EnviroGRIDS project, his personal objective is to motivate all the partners to give their best in order to create a great observation system for the Black Sea Catchment. He will be specially involved in WP3 and WP5.
  Personal page : https://www.unige.ch/climate/Team/Lehmann.html{end-tooltip} will insure the project coordination and the liaison with the GRID team.
• {tooltip}Dr. Nicolas Ray{end-texte} Dr. Nicolas Ray is the enviroGRIDS project manager. He holds a Master in Environmental Sciences, a PhD in Biology from University of Geneva in the field of Human Population Genetics, and a postgraduate certificate in Computer Sciences. Nicolas’ research activities focused on the modeling of animal movement and habitat, with the development of several spatial and statistical analysis tools to integrate various data types (genetic, environmental, demographic). Through his research and various consultancy works, Nicolas acquired solid competencies in GIS, spatial analysis, software development, and grid computing integration. After six years of postdoctoral research in Australia, UK and University of Bern, he recently joined the Institute of Environmental Science at University of Geneva and UNEP/GRID-Europe to dedicate his time to the enviroGRIDS project.
  
  In addition to managing the daily activities of the project and ensuring high quality deliverables, he will take an active part in WP2 with all tasks related to the integration of grid computing and SDI.
  Personal webpage : https://www.unige.ch/climate/Team/Ray.html {end-tooltip} will ensure the project management and the liaison with administrative bodies at University of Geneva.
• Dr. Stéphane Goyette will coordinate activities related to climate change
• Prof. Martin Beniston will coordinate activities related to climate change
• Dr. Douglas Cripe (M.Sc. in Atmospheric Science and Ph.D. in Physical Geography) is a Project Officer within the Group on Earth Observation Secretariat, working primarily on the administration of Tasks in the Water and Agriculture Societal Benefit Areas (SBAs), as well as the Data and Architecture Transverse Area.. He also occupies a position as senior scientists at the University within the C3i group.

Role in the project

UNIGE is coordinating the EnviroGRIDS project and leading WP1 and WP2. UNIGE is involved in many tasks and deliverables across the project in order to keep the best possible overview on the entire project. Its main tasks are however linked to the management of the project (WP1), the development of the grid-enabled spatial data infrastructure (WP2), remote sensing data integration (WP2), scenarios of demographic and climate change over the Black Sea Catchment (WP3), sustainability and vulnerability assessment of the BSC (WP5), and finally development of the after-life plan for EnviroGRIDS (WP7).

The company Arx iT SA is a Swiss and French market leader in the Geographical Information Systems (GIS) domain. Arx iT’s core business consists in technologies consulting and GIS integration solutions combined with quality assurance practices. Arx iT is actually focused in customized applications which tend to make easier the edition, the treatment, the use and the diffusion of GIS data. Therefore, Arx iT opted for a team of co-workers and partners specialized in environment, mobility and transportation matters.

As more and more GIS projects have to be integrated with others IT systems, Arx iT chooses to develop its know-how in four main activities :

• Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
• Information Systems
• Multimedia
• Technology consulting

Through its various projects, Arx iT has always adopted a quality-focused process. The company has therefore naturally set up a quality control system and it has also recently obtained the ISO 9001-2000 certification.

The project will essentially be implemented by:

• {tooltip}David Beni{end-texte}David is CEO of arx iT Consulting, company involved in WP2, especially around the 2.2 and 2.7 tasks (GRID enabled SDI architecture, storage and exchange of data and metadata, interoperability). David is graduated in Software Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL). During is education, he rapidly moved towards Geographical Information Systems (GIS) issues. In 2001, he set up arx iT Consulting, which is mainly active in technologies consulting and GIS solutions integration. David is mainly focused on the analysis and the conception of information systems and to project management.{end-tooltip}
• Julien longchamp

Role in the project:

Related to this project, the expertise of Arx iT will be useful especially for software development associated to the Spatial Direct Server architecture (WP2). The GIS expertise combined with our know-how on data treatment and processing will be helpful in the project’s success.

ARXIT : https://www.arxit.com

Melitopol State Pedagogical University - Azov-Black Sea Ornithological Station

Melitopol State Pedagogical University was founded in 1923. The University has 7 Faculties, 19 specialties. There are more as 5.000 students. Scientific Department of University represent from 300 scientists, specialists, engineers and administration.

The department involved within the framework of the project is Azov-Black Sea Ornithological Station (AZBOS). AZBOS was born on the 12th December 1985. It is an interdepartmental subunit of two institutions: 1- Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology (National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine) and 2- Melitopol Pedagogical University (Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine).

Principal direction of the Station’s scientific investigations: Control of ornithofauna, estimation of ornithological situation in the south of Ukraine and current changes in bird distribution and number; Investigation of wetlands in the region, having international importance and development of recommendation on their conservation; Study of bird migratory routes, their structure and stability to conserve bird species, migrating in Eurasia; Biological monitoring of rare and threatened bird species of Ukrainian steppe zone, finding of their nesting grounds; Inventory of natural reserve areas.

In 2000 due to the initiative and financial support of WWF Odessa Project Office there was created Wetland Management Unit (WMU) as department of Azov-Black Ornithological Station. WMU has wide network of experts in ornithology, herpetology, terriology, geobotany, floristics, ichthyology, hydrobiology and landscape diversity. The Unit is a centre of technical expertise and international cooperation to conserve and sustainable use of wetlands and their resources. Its activity is directed at: Preparing management-plan and propositions to support biodiversity in coastal and aquatorial ecosystems; Carrying out monitoring; Gathering and analysis of data on use of wetlands and their resources; Implementing of trainings, technical consultations and expert estimation on problems of wetland management and support of their biological diversity.

Main international research activities:

• the section within the World Bank supported project "Conservation of biological diversity of the Ukrainian part of the Danube Delta" (1996)
• projects of Wetlands International - AEME "Support for the conservation of wetlands and wetland species in the Azov-Black Sea region of Ukraine" (1998)
• projects of Wetlands International - AEME “Strategy for Waterbird Monitoring in the Black Sea Region” (2000)
• GEF project “Second phase of support of biodiversity enabling activity” (2003)
• GEF project “Estimation of biodiversity of migratory waterfowls in wetlands along the Corridor and identification of important area of seasonal feeding distribution and routes of bird movements” – the part of GEF project “The support of biodiversity of Azov-Black sea Ecological Corridor (the project covered wetlands of the south part of Ukraine) (2004-2005)
• TACIS project “Emergency Planning and Flood Protection in the Lower Danube EuroRegion” (2005 - 2006) (some experts).
• TACIS project “Technical Assistance for the Lower Dniester River Basin Management Planning” (2006-2007) (some experts)
• 14 projects on management and restoration recommendation for Danube delta region of DCPO WWF (2000-2007)

The project will essentially be implemented by:

• {tooltip}Josef Chernichko{end-texte}Present position: Head of the Azov-Black Sea Ornithological Station. Director of Wetlands and Protected Areas Management Unit. Scientific interests are evolutionary and population avian ecology, migrations. Over 40 years of scientific studies in the field of ornithology and ecology. Participant and organizer of several international expeditions. Coordinator of waterbird monitoring in 7 Black Sea countries within the programme of Wetlands-International-AEME. Author and programme leader of the Regional Ornithological Monitoring. Project leader of more than 20 scientific and scientific-practical projects including those in the framework of the activity of such organizations as Wetlands International, WWF, GEF; worked as an expert in TACIS projects. Dr. Chernichko leads the Wetlands and Protected Areas Management Unit (WMU), which activity is focused at development recommendations for wetlands management. Under his guidance WMU executed over 10 elaborations for management of Danube delta areas. The most large-scale of them is ‘a Vision for the Danube Delta, Ukraine’ (in collaboration with WWF Danube-Carpathian Programme and Stroming Bureau, the Netherlands). Dr. Chernichko is a co-author of this voluminous document, as well as co-author of 5 other monographs and about 150 scientific papers. Since 1993 he is a member of National Committee on rare bird species at the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources and Corresponding member of Ukrainian Ecological Academy of Science and also of such organizations as: Menzbir Ornithological Society (Russia); Ornithological Committee of North Eurasia; International Wader Study Group (WSG).
  Current activity in EnviroGRIDS project is focused at the assessment of influence of climate and landscape changes, and demographic scenarios on biodiversity and ecosystems.{end-tooltip}, Candidate of Biological Sciences, ornithologist, ecologist – team leader.
• Yury Andryushchenko, Candidate of Biological Sciences, ornithologist, geographer, ecologist
• Vladimir Popenko, Candidate of Biological Sciences, ornithologist, ecologist
• Vladimir Siokhin, Candidate of Biological Sciences, ecologist, ornithologist
• Alexandr Koshelev, Doctor of Biological Sciences, ornithologist, ecologist
• Sergey Podorozhny, Candidate of Biological Sciences, botanist, ecologist
• Raisa Chernichko, Candidate of Biological Sciences, ornithologist, ecologist, specialist in ecological education
• Mikhail Zhmud, Candidate of Biological Sciences, ornithologist, ecologist
• Viktor Demchenko, ichthyologist, ecologist
• Semen Volovnik, Candidate of Biological Sciences, entomologist, specialist in ecological education
• Yury Karmyshev, Candidate of Biological Sciences, herpetologist, ecologist
• Oleg Dyakov, Candidate of Geographical Sciences, hydrologist, ecologist
• Svetlana Vinokurova, programmer, ecologist, GIS specialist
• Sergey Suchkov, entomologist, ecologist

Role in the project:

AZBOS is taking part in two tasks and several deliverables on “Biodiversity” and “Ecosystems” so called societal benefit areas within WP5.

Czech Centre for Science and Society, Republic Czech

CCSS is an association of high tech SMEs, the public administration and research organisations. It is an independent, non-profit and non-governmental organisation. CCSS is a type of virtual centre of excellence with the focus on the implementation of new communication and navigation technologies which have potential for sustainable development.

The CCSS co-operates with a wide range of institutions and individuals, home and foreign ones. International activities in the field of international projects, utilisation of modernist technologies, co-operation networks of the small and medium business within the framework of regional economies comprise intensive contacts, particularly in Europe, Africa and South America.

CCSS is national coordination office for the United Nations Spatial Data Infrastructure (UNSDI) initiative. The objective of UNSDI is to enhance spatial data and information sharing between UN agencies and programmes, as well as national and regional SDI’s, and promote and achieve sustainable development through a.o. opensource software solutions.

Finished projects:

• EMIRES supported economic development and the creation of new jobs in some less favoured regions by providing suitable mobility. (https://www.emires.net/)

• Rural Wins - Thematic Network aimed to build a strategic RTD roadmap developing an Information and Communication Technologies vision which ensures the economically and technically feasible deployment of information and communication solutions for rural areas (including also maritime regions and islands). (https://www.ruralwins.net/index.htm)

• A BARD Analysing Broadband Access for Rural Development (A-BARD) is the Coordination Action (2005 – 2006) to research rural broadband provision and use, as part of the Scientific Support to Policies in the EU Sixth Framework Programme.

• Armonia - The overall aim of the research project ARMONIA (Applied multi Risk Mapping of Natural Hazards for Impact Assessment) is to provide integrated risk maps in areas prone to natural disasters in Europe.(https://www.armoniaproject.net)

• NaturNet Redime. The general objective of NATURNET-REDIME project (NNR) is the improvement of knowledge and the provision of education concerning all aspects of Sustainable Development. (https://www.naturnet.org)

Running projects:

• WINSOC. The key idea of WINSOC is the development of a totally innovative design methodology, where the high accuracy and reliability of the whole network is achieved by introducing a suitable coupling among adjacent, low cost, sensors that gives rise to a distributed detection or estimation more accurate than that of each single sensor, without the need for sending all the data to a fusion centre.

The project will essentially be implemented by:

• Dr CHARVÁT Karel. Education: Charles University in Prague - Doctor in theoretical cybernetics.
• Dr BOUKALOVÁ Zuzana. Education: Charles University in Prague – Faculty of Science, Department of Hydrogeology and civil engineering, RNDr (doctor in environmental science).

Role in the project:

CCSS is leading the task on sensor data integration in WP2 and taking part in the interoperability task. In WP6, CCSS will build a Uniform Resource Management (URM) platform that will be integrated within BSC-OS Portal and EnviroGRIDS Platform in order to support effective exchange of knowledge and information.

European Organization for Nuclear research, Switzerland

CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is funded by 20 European member states and has a yearly budget of approximately 1000 MCHF. CERN has 2600 permanent staff coming from the 20 member states.

CERN is currently constructing a new particle accelerator on the Swiss-French border near Geneva. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will be the world’s most powerful accelerator providing research facilities for several thousand High Energy Physics (HEP) researchers from all over the world. The LHC start up is planned for 2008.

Four LHC experiments designed and constructed by large international collaborations (each with up to 2000 scientists and engineers coming from more than 250 institutes) will collect data over the next 10 years. These experiments will generate in the order of 15 Petabytes per year, to be shared with all the participating scientists looking for discoveries to understand the fundamental laws of nature.

The computing capacity required to analyse the data far exceeds the capacity needs of any comparable physics experiments today and needs the combined resources of some 200 computer centres world-wide. CERN has chosen Grid technology to address the huge data storage and analysis challenge of LHC.

CERN, “where the Web was born”, has been at the forefront of computing for many years and now leads the world’s largest Grid project “Enabling Grids for E-SciencE (EGEE)”. CERN also has a long tradition of collaborating with IT industry, including via EU-supported research programmes. The IT Department currently has 280 staff, predominantly engineers, who operate one of Europe’s largest Computer Centres supporting over 10,000 users.

CERN has prominently contributed to a number of EGEE-related grid projects aiming at extending the EGEE production grid infrastructure to n ew geographical areas, to serve new applications domains and to support the Grid community: BalticGrid-II, D4Science, EGI_DS, enviroGRIDS, ETICS 2, GridTalk, Health-e-Child and SEE-GRID-SCI.

The project will essentially be implemented by:

• Dr Jamie Shiers, CERN representative in the PGA
• Dr Andrew Maier, Physicist, Technical staff
• {tooltip}Mr. Lukasz Kokoszkiewicz{end-texte}Lukasz Kokoszkiewicz is a computer scientist working at CERN. He has studied at Cracow University of technology in Cracow, Poland. His main specialization is web development and web interfaces. For 8 months he worked on Gridmap applications. In enviroGrids, he is working on the gridification of SWAT. {end-tooltip}, Computer Scientist

Role in the project:

The main task of CERN is to lead the task 2.5 on the “Gridification of Applications”, especially SWAT. CERN will also make available its experience on the EGEE to help EnviroGRIDS establish its Virtual Organisation on the EGEE. CERN is also involved in task 2.2 on data storage and interoperability standards.

Eawag is a Swiss-based and internationally-linked aquatic research institute committed to an ecological, economical and socially responsible management of water – the primary source of all life. It carries out research, teaching and consulting and forms a link between science and practical application. Multidisciplinary teams of specialists in the fields of Environmental Engineering, Natural and Social Sciences jointly develop solutions to environmental problems. The acquired knowledge and know-how is transmitted nationally and internationally by publications, lectures, teaching, and consulting to the private and public sector.

400 employees are active at the locations in Dübendorf (near Zurich) and Kastanienbaum (near Lucerne). Eawag was founded in 1936 as an information centre for wastewater treatment of the ETH Zurich. It is a Swiss Federal Research Institute which is part of the ETH-Domain.

The project will essentially be implemented by:

• Dr. Hong Yang is an Economic Geographer by training and is currently a senior scientist at Eawag,, and a visiting professor of the Institute for Geographical Science and Natural Resources Research, the Chinese Academy of Science. She is the leader of the group for Water, Food and Environmental Studies in the Department of Systems Analysis, Integrated Assessment and Modeling at Eawag. Her main research interests include integrated land and water resources management, water scarcity and its impacts on food security and implications for the global food trade, environment, regional development, poverty alleviation and agricultural policies.
• {tooltip}Dr. Karim Abbaspour{end-texte} Dr. Karim Abbaspour is a soil scientist and hydrologist. He has studied at UBC in Vancouver, Canada, and ETHZ in Switzerland. He has been working at the Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology since 2000. His main specialization is in application of flow and transport models at small and large scales. He is also working on methods of model calibration, validation, and uncertainty analysis. He is the leader of WP4 in the EnviroGrid project and responsible for development of a hydrologic model of the Black Sea Basin.{end-tooltip} is in the field of hydrology and soil physics with a background in civil engineering and mathematics. He has done extensive work and published numerous articles in modelling of flow and transport in soils, groundwater, and catchments. On the mathematical side, he had developed internationally used inverse modelling techniques. He also has substantial expertise in using GIS and developing GIS-based risk analysis systems.
• {tooltip}Elham Rouholahnejad{end-texte} Elham Rouholahnejad is a PhD student in Environmental science at ETH university of Switzerland working at EAWAG, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science. She had studied Civil Engineering as her bachelor and Environmental Engineering as a master. She is continuing her study as a PhD working on WP4 of EnviroGrids project to predict a hydrological model for Blacksea catchment.{end-tooltip}, PhD student

Role in the project:

Eawag is the leader of WP4 (Black Sea Hydrological Model) and will hence be responsible for the development of a catchment hydrological model. Eawag will develop a detailed watershed-scale hydrologic model of the Black Sea region. This model will allow analysis of the impact of landuse and climate change on water resources and water quality. Eawag will also be responsible for developing system analysis techniques for calibration, validation, sensitivity, and uncertainty analysis of the hydrologic model. in Work package 5.3, Eawag will be responsible for the integrated assessment of environmental impacts on agricultural production in the Black Sea catchment. Eawag will lead the work on modeling agri-environmental issues with the GIS-based EPIC model (GEPIC). In 5.7, Eawag will also be involved in the assessment of sustainability and vulnerability.

Geographic GIS&RS Consulting Center

The Geoinformation Systems and Remote Sensing Consulting Centre (GeoGraphic) was founded in 1998. GeoGraphic is devoted to create and deliver corporative and specialized software, flexible data management technologies, reliable and high quality cartographic production. GeoGraphic makes every effort to meet practical needs of its clients. It uses geographic information systems and improved data management tools to help with better decisions making.

Since 2002 GeoGraphic has been offering its customers a wide range of services in geoinformation systems formation, geodatabase management, GIS projects implementation, sectoral systems and user-oriented software development. During the short period of its activities GeoGraphic has served its clients by carrying out expert researches and evaluations, spatial modeling and improving decision-making process.

Since 2004 GeoGraphic has been expanding area of its activities offering a wide spectrum of services – from topo-geodetic survey to management systems development. GeoGraphic operates in almost all fields: environmental protection, natural resources management, urban development and architect, transport and communications, infrastructure, real estate market, education, cultural heritage, municipal management, emergency situations, defence and security, health care and social issues – these are directions where Geographic has achieved significant results demonstrating efficiency of GIS technologies application.

Expertise gained by GeoGraphic over the years includes: Spatial Data Processing and Spatial Analysis; Aerial Photography and Satellite Image Processing Information Technologies Development; Corporate Geoinformation Systems; Expert Systems Development; Photogrammetry and Orthophoto Production; Customized Software Development; Management Information Systems; Environmental Survey and Analysis; Geomonitoring Survey; High-End Cartographic Production; Topogeodetic and Cadastral Works; Land Use Planning; Urban Development; ESRI and Leica Geosystems Software Distribution, Training and Certification.

The project will essentially be implemented by:

• {tooltip}Mr. Mamuka Gvilava{end-texte}Mamuka Gvilava is engaged by the GIS and RS Consulting Center "GeoGraphic", Georgia, as the Task Manager responsible for GeoGraphic’s contribution into the EnviroGRIDS Project. He is specialized in a wide range of environmental subjects with more than 10 years of experience gained with cooperative projects in Georgia and in the Black Sea region. Physicist with education and science degree, expanded his field of activities to environmental and social subjects, such as integrated coastal management, environmental informatics (GIS & RS, with particular experience in setting up the coastal monitoring and information systems for Georgia), environmental and social impact assessment, as well as the application of green design and development methodologies. He combines his practical hands-on experience in environmental management and research with wider scope of policy advice serving the Ministry of Environment as the National Focal Point on Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) and the Georgian Member of the ICZM Advisory Group to the Black Sea Commission. Mamuka Gvilava is based in Tbilisi, Georgia, and is employed by "GeoGraphic" to lead its EnviroGRIDS team in implementing WP2 (Task 2.4) and WP7. {end-tooltip}
• {tooltip}Ms. Tamar Baburadze{end-texte} Tamar Bakuradze represents GIS & RS Consulting Centre "GeoGraphic", Georgia, in the EnviroGRIDS project. She is GIS & Remote Sensing Specialist with the background and experience in addressing environmental and integrated coastal zone management (ICZM) issues. She specialized during her career in analyzing spatial data for environment protection and natural resources management. Geographer with academic background, she is mastered in the application of Cartography/GIS/RS for environment & land management. She was involved in several environmental projects: designing and implementing the environmental quality monitoring and information system for Georgia’s coastal zone; generating the State of the Environment (SoE) reporting for national decision-makers and the wider public. In parallel to project work she is serving as the Secretary of the ICZM Working Group for Georgia. With the EnviroGRIDS project, she will be especially involved in WP2 (task 2.4) and WP7 as the Remote Sensing Analyst and in the capacity of the Assistant to the Task Manager. Tamar was proposed and accepted at the 1st Meeting of the Project General Assembly as the member of the EnviroGRIDS’s Gender Committee.{end-tooltip}

Role in the project:

As a part of WP2, task 2.4 – Remote Sensing Data GeoGraphic will contribute to remote sensing data collection, data integration into the Grid architecture and redistribution to all partners to provide information about the project area and continuous data on the changes driven in the area. GeoGraphic will support to remote sensing analyses, monitoring changes and trends in the Black Sea region/watershed (e.g. land use, deforestation, water quality). This will result in proposing early warning management systems, monitoring and control. GeoGraphic will apply remote sensing technologies for remote data observation and interpretation, correction of images and their registration at the UTM coordinate system, etc.
As part of WP7, task 7.2 - Organization of Workshops and Training GeoGraphic will pursue the overall aim to enhance the application and use of EnviroGRIDS system by providing assistance into the organisation of workshops in the Black Sea Region, to promote, present and discuss climate, demographic and land cover change scenarios, hydrological models, impacts on societal benefit areas, local, national and regional sustainability and vulnerability. This input will primarily be directed towards raising awareness and involvement of the target groups such as stakeholders, environmental managers, NGOs.

Institute for Water Education (UNESCO/IHE)

UNESCO-IHE is a world-leading education and research institute running Master of Science and PhD programmes. During its 50 years of history more than 13400 professional beneficiaries from more than 80 countries have been trained at IHE in water, environment and transportation. UNESCO-IHE has been involved in the following European projects: POND-LIVE, PAISA , ECOTOOLS and Fingerponds.

UNESCO-IHE is currently involved in SWITCH Sustainable Water management Improves Tomorrow’s Cities’ Health, FLOODSITE, Delft Cluster Projects (e.g. WFD-Tools, Floods) and the Nile Basin Capacity Building Network project.

UNESCO-IHE is also member of the Global Development Learning Network (GDLN) of the WorldBank, a network of training and education centres all over the world (www.gdln.org), which provides an excellent infrastructure to deliver e-learning courses and video-conference workshops (e.g. the recently hold inter-river basin workshop on water management) within Europe and globally.

The project will essentially be implemented by:

• Dr. Ann van Griensven, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Hydroinformatics, is involved in the modelling related activities of WP2 and WP4. She will supervise a PhD research on SWAT applications for water quality modelling
• Dr. Andreja Jonoskiworks at UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education as a Senior Lecturer, is involved in the activities of WP6 and WP7. His teaching responsibilities and research expertise are in the areas of catchment and groundwater modelling, and integration of models in decision support environments.
• Dr. Wim Douven will work in WP7 on the e-learning and video-conferencing developments and has 20 years of experience in integrated assessment and evaluation approaches, bringing together system and policy analysis, in environmental and water management projects at different scales in EU and Asian regions.
• Dr. Ioana Popescu is a Senior Lecturer in hydroinformatics at UNESCO-IHE, Delft, The Netherlands. She is specialized in river and catchment modelling and decision support systems for flood risk management and will be involved in WP4 and WP6.

Role in the project:

The expertise of the UNESCO-IHE research team is in river basin modelling for management and in integration of hydrological and hydraulic models and data in decision support systems distributed over electronic networks. Particular focus is on distributed catchment modelling with SWAT, model integration using OpenMI, and development of web- and mobile phone–based decision support and impact assessment applications.

The team also has expertise in development of e-learning content in the above mentioned fields. The main role of UNESCO-IHE in this project will be in WP4 –development of catchment hydrological models, WP2 – gridification of applications, WP6 – development of prototypes of Black Sea Observation Systems for citizens and WP7 – dissemination and training, particularly through development of content for the virtual training center.

University of Barcelona/European Topic Centre Land Use and Spatial Information supported by the European Environment Agency (EEA)

The UAB ETC/SIA is an international consortium contracted by and assisting the European Environment Agency (EEA) in delivering information on the state and trends of the environment through the provision of timely, targeted, relevant and reliable information to policy-making agents and the public. The consortium is leaded by the Universidad de Málaga since January 2011.
In order to achieve these aims, the UAB ETC/SIA works closely with the EEA Member States (EIONET) in establishing regular harmonized data flows to support current and upcoming environmental reporting obligations. The UAB ETC-LUSI Core Team is a group of 12 international experts holding university degrees in geography, geology, biology and IT and experience in regional, national and European projects in several fields of the GIS/SDI and manage the Terrestrial Information System (TERRIS) – a reference database for environmental spatial information in Europe especially oriented to facilitate spatial analysis and the development of environmental indicators.
The work agenda of the UAB ETC/SIA Core Team is driven by the main policy needs regarding environment, sectoral integration and planning in Europe. Through the analysis and understanding of spatial change, the core team and its wider network is closely interrelated with other EEA priority areas, such as biodiversity loss, climate change, human health & quality of life.

Main international research activities

• Coordination of the European Corine Land Cover 2000 and 2006
• Development of a harmonized European methodology for the identification of risk areas for soil contamination.
• Development of the spatial dimension agro-environmental indicators for IRENA
• Leading the DG Environment Working Group on Indicator and Data to develop a set of indicators to monitor progress in Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) since 2002
• Spatial modelling and analysis in support of integrated environmental assessments and development of indicators for assessing the European State of the coast
• Support in developing the Shared European Integrated Spatial Information Service through integration of new basic reference data into TERRIS (e.g. data set on urban morphological zones to analyze spatial changes in and around urban areas and their interaction with the surrounding land – access to recreational areas)
• Developing the method on “Land and Ecosystem Accounting” (LEAC) together with the EEA – a method to measure land cover changes based on different inventories of the CLC (or other) database
• Through LEAC methodology, a number of indicators have been calculated (eg. fragmentation of land and ecosystems, land take by urban sprawl and transport networks, pressures on protected areas, etc.)

Besides that, UAB ETC/SIA is partners in several European projects under the framework of FP6 and FP7. Colleagues are also involved and members of several national working groups like Spanish SDI or UNSDI (United Nations SDI).

The project will essentially be implemented by:

• Mr. Jaume Fons PhD in Biology, environmental analyst. He holds a PhD on biology (1995). His research focused on plant and soil relationships and related applications to forest management, reforestation of degraded areas and the impact of land abandonment on the Mediterranean. He has been involved in several international projects (Europe and Canada) and has been working for the ETC since 2001, where he has coordinated the soil related projects. In particular he has focused on the impact of the most dynamic land process like those derived from the Common Agricultural Policy or urban sprawl.

Role in the project:

UAB is involved in WP3 on scenarios of change.